As one of the long-frustrated users of Logmein on a Mac, I struggled with not being able to work with remote machines as easily as I did on a PC running Windows. Being stuck in a browser (and all of the trouble that came with it) was never a fun experience. Well, this changes today (hopefully) now that Logmein has released a version of the administration tool called Ignition for OSX.

Installation is as simple as can be – just open the DMB file and drag the folder into your applications directory. From there, you just need to run Ignition. The interface is somewhat similar to what you’d find in the Windows version, perhaps just slightly different. I would love for Logmein to someday support multiple saved logins (hint, hint).

Once you login, the list of machines is displayed in a somewhat inefficient manner (compared to its PC counterpart). The crazy thing about this beta is that you can’t expand the window to the right (Update June 13 2012: A new version of the beta allows the main window to be expanded)  – meaning prefixed machines won’t show the entire computer name (Though clicking on the info link will get you more details). The option to view only online machines is there as well as an inline search. Those looking for features such as excluding expired machines or more advanced sort may have to wait for later releases.

Administering a computer worked well and all of the tools you’re accustomed to (along the top toolbar) are available as you might expect.

Overall this is a huge and much-requested tool by users of Logmein and well worth your time if you are a daily OSX user.

You can get this beta release at Logmein’s Labs Page.