These are in my opinion (and I've been working for enterprise tech
support for 6 years) the only two os x admin books worth reading.
As soon as the 10.5 versions are going to come out these will be on
my shopping list again. I still have the 10.4 versions on my Safari
bookshelf
This doesn't do much for people trying to get 10.5 working now.
Releasing software without adequate documentation is a bait-and-
switch tactic as far as I am concerned. If the only way to get a new
system to work is to hire a consultant, that should be on the
wrapper. Right now you can read everything necessary to be an "Apple
Certified Technical Coordinator" and still not be in a position to
install even the simplest Leopard Server configuration.
Apple put this out 7 March:
You can set up and manage your own network
Using Mac OS X Server. The simply powerful solution from Apple
harnesses the power of Leopard to run your network, letting you set
up and manage a server in just a few clicks. It’s the perfect
option for small business owners just getting started with servers.
Or even IT managers who’d like to quickly deploy a wide assortment
of new client services.
This is why people are ranting. That is the appropriate response
when you have been lied to and spent thousands on a system that
simply will not work, unless you are ready to throw thousands more
after it, and it still might not work. Even if you have the time to
read what appears to be the necessary books, it still adds a couple
of hundred to the price of a product that starts at five hundred. If
the Company is dishonest, there is no basis for doing business with
it, as far as I am concerned.
Now it looks like the iPhone will be supported on Windows before it
supported by OS X. If this is where the Apple Server is now, where
will it be in a few years? We have heard from others here that they
found it easier to switch to M$ than to get OS X Server to do the
job. It wasn't long ago that having a Windows free environment was
considered to be an end in itself. The idea of someone switching
from Mac to Windows was incomprehensible. The Good Will that was
created by Apple Computer with the Mac is now being turned into
cash. It sounds like the end is near for this product line.
The iPhone is a completely separate product from the Mac OS X/Mac OS X
Server ecosystem. It is being used in many environments that have
never had a Mac, much less a Mac server, at all. Exchange is used far
more than Mac OS X Server overall, and with mobile devices. This has
NOTHING to do with "Windows servers", or even Mac OS X Server for that
matter, and EVERYTHING to do with Exchange.
I don't even know how to respond to the iPhone being "supported" on
Windows before OS X...what does that even mean? Mac OS X Server has no
integrated and developed groupware capability that is similar to the
likes of Exchange. Sure, there's mail, and calendar, etc., but none of
these things are integrated. The "Apple" solution is things like .Mac.
The "Apple" solution is iTunes syncing.
The iPhone represents a way into a completely new market for Apple,
and the support of Exchange has zero to do with Mac OS X Server. I
can't even believe these things are coming up in the same context.
Will Mac OS X Server be a product forever? I can't predict the future.
But the iPhone supporting exchange, and even the discontinuation of
what is essentially a commodity drive cabinet where Apple frankly
shouldn't even be competing anyway have nothing to do with Mac OS X
Server.
In our environment, some things are known to just "run better" on
Linux, or Solaris, or AIX...oh, they may be "supported" a variety of
places, but for some things, experienced administrators know to use
the right tool for the job. Same goes for Mac OS X Server. Mac OS X
Server 10.5 has been probably my easiest upgrade. I have over 30
production servers running Mac OS X Server 10.5.x myself, and have had
far less problems, overall, than with any previous OS X Server release.
If anything, the iPhone situation shows Apple is willing to take some
enterprise steps. Since the iPhone is unrelated to Mac OS X Server,
this is *good news* for Mac OS X Server. Mac OS X Server may have a
narrow market, but I don't see any indication that it, Xserves, or
anything else are just going to go away. The Xserve RAID had been
marked for death for a while, with so many other more capable and
feature-filled fibre channel arrays doing more for a lot less money.
Apple has no business being in commodity markets. That's why they
stopped making digital cameras, printers, and all sorts of other things.
And now, for the first time, Mac OS X Server can be virtualized
alongside Windows server and UNIX OSes on the same hardware (Xserve).
Enterprise players like VMware will have server-grade solutions which
provide this functionality. Mac OS X Server adoption is only
increasing. Your premise about the iPhone "supporting" Windows
"before" Mac OS X is wrong, because the fact that Exchange is a
complete groupware solution that runs on Windows servers is
incidental. There is simply nothing similar on Mac OS X Server. This
isn't even about Mac OS X or Mac OS X Server - it's about the iPhone
going into environments where Exchange is already ubiquitous.
Just wanted to get this out there before people actually believe the
"end is near" garbage. Circumstantially, you can make it look bad:
Xserve RAID gone without notice! iPhone supports "Windows servers"
before Mac OS X Server! In reality, each statement represents a
complete misunderstanding of each situation.
Now let me switch gears for a second: would it be nice to actually
have some advance notice about what's going on in the server realm
from Apple — maybe even OS EOL schedules? — so we don't feel
blindsided by decisions? Sure. We have a whole laundry list of things
we want Apple to fix, both in the software and in their business. But,
even with all the problems, Mac OS X Server is still the solution of
choice for some tasks. It is not perfect. But neither is anything else
we run. Far from it.
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