Intel Imaging Tools
Although Apple doesn’t provide support for a universal Mac OS X installation, the typical options for disk image–based deployments work for Intel Macs because a disk image that is used for deployment is actually an image of a partition and not of the disk itself. (It is possible to create disk-level images, but such images are not used for deployment tools.) Thus, tools such as Apple Software Restore, NetBoot, and NetInstall; and Mike Bombich’s Carbon Copy Cloner and NetRestore can be used pretty much the same way with Intel Macs as with Power PC Macs. The difference, which is discussed in greater detail in the next section, is that you need to maintain separate sets of images for Intel Macs.
Other deployment tools that do not rely only on disk-imaging techniques can also work with Intel Macs. Radmind has been successfully used with Intel Macs. Also, Apple Remote Desktop and LANrev (which relies on a server-push approach to push updates out to target workstations) are both available as universal binaries, making them capable of running natively on Intel Macs and to be used in deployment efforts. In fact, the latest version of Apple Remote Desktop has significantly improved features for deploying applications, updates, and files.