Would You Buy A Mac OS X Server?

waterbug asks: "Slashdot has had recent stories on NeXT, integrating Unix with the Mac OS, OS X and X11, old Macs as terminals, and PPC distros of Linux. While all these stories have elicited scattered comments on the topic, I haven't really seen a good, focused discussion of whether Apple would be a viable manufacturer of OS X-based servers." Do you think Apple will be able to pull this off? I guess only time will tell, but it would be interesting to hear what you think about this right now.

"Imagine the following:

• A real server box with 2 or 4 G4's and easy access to all the hardware
• Mac OS X with full SMP support and all your favorite tools
• All the cool NeXT/OpenStep stuff that comes with OS X
• Redundant power supplies
• Hot-swappable SCSI RAID
• Industrial design that kicked ass, so that you'd want it out in the open instead of hiding on a rack or under a workbench

I think Apple has demonstrated that it has the skills to build such a box. The question is whether any of you would buy it. Admittedly, you'd probably pay a modest premium over an x86 solution, but would it be worth it for the enhanced compatibility, usability and style? Does OS X make Apple a more credible vendor of industrial-strength systems?"

Comments

What would you gain?

[scotpurl]

What can you get from an Apple server platform that you can't get elsewhere? Yeah, it'd be cool, but aside from that, what concrete things do you gain? Does cool hardware that no one outside the server room can see really mean better performance?

I mean, if all I wanted was file sharing, then anything would work. If there's some sort of remote administration, or client-adminstration you gain from the server, like Tivoli/SMS, that'd be a neat add-on. But I'll bet you can buy 2-3 boxes for the price of one Apple server.

My only hesitation is supporting a monopoly, be it Microsoft or Apple. Apple killed off all of their hardware competition, which was a shame, as I think some of their "competitors" were actually making better "Mac" hardware than Apple was (and at a lower price).

But why do you want your server out in the open? People will play with it, unplug it, bump it, spill drinks on it (like the $300 DEC Alpha keyboard I toasted once), and have to listen to the @#!! RAID drives whining and spinning. Get that thing into another climate-controlled room with fire suppression, hidden wiring, and locked doors. If you want to play on the console, then you need one as a workstation, not a server. :-)

Sure.

[Matthew Weigel]

Based on the bitching and moaning (and relatively reasonable bitching and moaning) on the MacOS X mailing lists about the fact that Apple isn't selling MacOS X Server or their server systems right now, I'd say yes.

And for those idiots who are claiming MacOS X will not have sufficient applications, I give you

• Exhibit A: Classic.app -- run your original Mac apps with their Platinum interface in MacOS X!
• Exhibit B: Carbon -- run some of your better behaved Mac apps with the Aqua interface in MacOS X!
• Exhibit C: Cocoa -- run, with just a little porting, many of your favorite old NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP applications in MacOS X (sorry, requires source, or a vendor still around)
• Exhibit D: Unix -- run your favorite command-line programs ported from BSD, Linux, or virtually any other UNIX, right in MacOS X!
• Exhibit E: X -- being made available is an X Windowing Server for MacOS X -- port your favorite X applications, or run them remotely on that Onyx2000 and display them on MacOS X!

And, for the record, if I got purchasing power in a small- or medium-sized network with UNIX servers after MacOS X is officially out, I'd certainly consider MacOS X as an option. Especially if NetInfo gets encryption like I've been hearing it would.