Since its initial release in 2000, Mac OS X has steadily improved its support for multiplatform environments. Mac OS X 10.4 (aka Tiger) permits seamless share-point access, printing, Web-resource sharing, and other networking functions in a Windows environment.

Unfortunately, Tiger's successor (Leopard) endured some rocky months following its late-October introduc¬tion. Subsequent Leopard releases (10.5.1 and 10.5.2) have greatly im¬proved the interface for multiplatform sharing, but harried network adminis¬trators worldwide are still awaiting fixes for certain tenacious network-ac¬cess bugs, such as slow Active Directo¬ry log-in. Some of those belated fixes may be available by the time you read this; you can keep up with the ongoing saga at MacWindows.com.

Printing is rarely an issue with Macs, since Mac OS X ships with more than 3GB of printer drivers gathered from many major vendors. If your printer isn't covered, you should be able to remedy the situation by using the free CUPS (Common Unix Printing Solution).