Available since version 10.4, Portable Home Directories have become one of the most elegant and well-implemented features of a full Mac OS X Server deployment. Functioning much like Windows’ roaming profiles (or earlier Solaris NFS/NIS environments), they allow a user to log in from any computer on your network while retaining their personal data and settings. Unlike entirely network-based systems, however, they do so by synchronizing user data to the server (so that a full copy of the home directory exists in both locations), eliminating the need for constant connectivity.

Despite Apple’s encouragement to install OS upgrades as soon as they’re released, most systems administrators test updates for a couple of weeks to see if any obvious or significant issues occur in their environment. It’s been two weeks since Apple released Leopard 10.5.3, and while the update fixes a laundry list of problems (including Active Directory, AFP, iCal, Time Machine, and SMB issues), it breaks one simple feature that most Mac users simply can’t live without: With 10.5.3 on client or server machine, some Adobe CS3 applications (primarily Photoshop, but occasionally InDesign) can no longer save to network shares.

One of Leopard’s less beloved security features is the warning that appears when users first open downloaded applications. Given that most software now comes from the internet, this dialog has become a common part of the average Mac user experience. In some cases, though, that one-time process never ends, displaying the same dialog at every launch. The problem is especially common when applications are installed (but not run) by an administrative user.