The information below is useful to those interested in running Open Dental in a Linux Server or Mac OS environment.

Open Dental on the Server

The Open Dental server can always be Linux (tested) or macOS (not tested).

The server needs to be able to host the MySQL/MariaDB server and the image files, but does not need to be able to run Open Dental itself.

• Unlimited computers can connect to the database on an ordinary Windows workstation, despite Windows limitations.
• To get around the computer limit for the A to Z Folder (i.e., OpenDentImages), simply get a network-attached hard drive.
• See Computer Requirements for more information on maximum number of simultaneous connections, depending on Windows version.

Running the Open Dental Client on Workstations

The Open Dental client program cannot run on Linux or Mac OS.

Mac users may be interested in these tools that run Windows.

• Parallels: Run Windows in a virtual machine inside Mac OS.
• Bootcamp: Boot up the Mac with either Mac OS or Windows.