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Mac OS X "Tiger" Server Previewed
It also adds a Jabber server that provides the option of serving iChat. SSL/TLS and Kerberos can be added for security. A single Tiger iChat client can have chats running on multiple servers, so a user can be on the main iChat server, while having private chats on a company server. Because it is Jabber, non-iChat (and non-AIM) clients can participate too.
Tiger Server also works to make network setup even easier with Internet Gateway Setup Assistant. In Panther Server, setting up a network with DNS, DHCP, NAT, firewall, and port mapping was easier than most other platforms, but still required a good deal of manual configuration, and separate configuration of each service. The Setup Assistant will provide single-button setup of it all.
A Software Update Server can cache and control Apple software updates. So once you're satisfied that the new OS update won't delete home folders, you can OK it for your users to download; and they won't take up your Internet bandwidth, because the server cached it.
Mobile Home Directories allows a mobile user to sync his home directory with a central server, backing it up and allowing an admin to manage it.
A new Windows migration tool will allow Windows admins to migrate from Windows-based servers. Tiger Server can act as a Primary Domain Controller for a Windows network, and the tool will migrate user and group account from an existing Windows PDC into Open Directory 2 and Samba 3.
Tiger Server will retain the pricing structure of the previous versions: $500 for the 10-client edition and $1000 for the unlimited client edition (the number of clients referring only to simultaneous file sharing clients).
Did you catch the first few words of the blurb? "Remaining unmentioned".
As much as I'd love to jump on the "dupe" bandwagon, the previous slashdot article did not mention these Tiger 'server' updates (comments notwithstanding.)
Thanks for the update.
Does the author mean a NT4 style PDC or an Active Directory Domain Controller? My guess is NT4 PDC. However, if it is a Windows 2003 Native Mode compatible Domain Controller/Global Catalog, WOW! If it is NT4 PDC, yawn. Not too many folks are running those in the Enterprise, however, I do see the benefit of creating a migration path from Windows to Mac for old, small NT4 networks.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
What market is currently being targetted by the OS X Servers?
Someone else mentioned life sciences. They also seek the K-12 Academic markets where it's hard to employ a full time network admin to set up Active Directory, Exchange Server, etc. The same applies for small businesses, those who are likely to prefer the idea of one server does all (or most) of the services they need, especially email and file sharing. Another big market (almost the cliche Apple niche) is the creative market, from media agencies to smaller publishers to design/creative departments at larger companies. Often these organizations don't employ a full time admin, leaving that to outside companies and a designated person within the group. In the case of a creative department within a larger company, they often have a disconnect between the rest of the company (being on Macs while the rest of the company is on PC, for example) along with different needs.
leading me to conclude it is a niche market
As Apple adds more features to OS X server, they hope to please their existing niches while making it apparent to others that they can easily configure a complex server without having to rely on Microsoft. They get the stability and security associated with open source plus the ease of use from Apple.
We use an XServe G5 as a single sign-on and file server for a "lab" of about 14 FreeBSD and Windows XP machines. The computers are used as workstations (and occasionally for light numerical work) by theorists working on quantum information and quantum computation.
Macs seem to be quite popular among the quantum computing community. Ray Laflamme's group (U. of Waterloo and Perimeter Institute) uses them (although maybe they don't have an Xserve), and about 40% of the laptops at a recent quantum information conference I was at were PowerBooks.
There are still quite a few left:
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Lynx
Puma
Cougar
Ummmm, they've already used that one. It was 10.1
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"Never Attribute to malice what is adequately explained by stupidity..."
Since a lot of code is based on FreeBSD 5.x, check out rwatson's page on POSIX.1e.
ACLs in FreeBSD (and by extension "Tiger") are based on the last public draft of the POSIX.1e document (it was never ratified). The procedure will be the same as is done in Solaris and Linux(?).
chmod and chown do not affect ACLs; to do that you have to use setfacl . When you use ls you do not see the extra ACLs, but a '+' character after the traditional permissions. The '+' tells you that ACLs are present; to view them you have to use getfacl utility.
Apple has added Darwin-level support for resource forks in Tiger, and have recompiled their Unix tools (including cp, mv, et cetera) to properly handle resource forks. So rsync will work properly with resource forks now.
Yes, it's called the VFS layer (just as it is on other BSDs - and as it was in SunOS 2.0, which had a VFS layer before Linux existed; the BSD VFS layer is a bit like the one in various SunOS releases, although it's not the same).
I link the keynote which is interesting.. Get modded to "flamebait"????. Maybe someone couldn't get a good connection?
Anyway here are the working links again..
Quicktime WWDC
or a more direct link
Anyway I finish watching. Interesting stuff. The system wide search is interesting. Like the google search service for your hard drive.
The the real time image/video effects. I do a lot of photoshop and the effects are really fast and leverage the video card GPU. The libraries will autodetect the card and use the card if applicable. 100+ effect libraries with the os to build into application.
They're working hard on the OS and it shows.
I think you ARE flamebait. Konfabulator isn't the first widget thingy by far, and Apple's implementation looks much, much more efficient than Konfab's resource hogging. Just because it sits in the corner, Spotlight is a VERY DIFFERENT beast to launchbar. Its a system wide indexer that lets you instantly search METADATA and FULL CONTENT in both files and database listings, like Address Book and Mail as well as filenames, and it can store smart folders for quick access to saved searches like iTunes does. Launchbar is an APPLICATION launcher. From what I saw, Spotlight didn't care about applications at all, its for files and database entries. And Oh My God! RSS Aggregation Client! NetNewsWire, please meet OmniWeb, Livejournal, Slashdot, and a billion other aggregation programs. RSS was designed to do just that. Using a standard to do what its intended isn't what I'd call copying. How about you don't post with your gut reaction? It stinks.
Mac OS X Server pricing for .edu is half price. I bought a 3 year maintenance contract for my unlimited client server a day before 10.3 Server shipped for $499. That covered 10.3, will cover 10.4, and may or may not cover 10.5 - but I'm thinking not unless they ship by Sept. 2006.
The 10 client license is $249. There *may* be an even cheaper offer for ADC members.
I have mod points, but I'd rather reply to this: why did this get moderated "Insightful"? At best, it's flamebait, but I'd rather think troll.
Where have you been the last, um, 10 or 15 years? Can't be bothered to just Google even for a second before going off like this?
I don't pretend to know much about ACLs or their history, but they have been part of many commercial UNIXes for quite some time (first time I came around them was on OSF/1), and they have been implemented semi-recently in Linux and the *BSDs. Samba has had ACL support since the late 2.x days, IIRC. And I have a hunch that Windows NT got it's model from adopting DCE.
So, let's think, what's Apple going to do? Considering that they track FreeBSD 5 closely, and FreeBSD 5 has ACLs?
But compare it to microsoft who is still trying to get 64 bit to work right.
Yeah, it has taken Microsoft FOREVER, especially considering NT 4.0 was a 64bit OS on Alpha back in 1996 - let alone that Windows XP 64bit for Itanium was out in 2001.
Man, Microsoft is really behind the curve here...
It is great Apple is making great roads into the 64bit progression; however, ignorance of Microsoft's advances don't mean that Apple is the leader in this area.
Let alone the various other 64bit OSes that have been around for a while.
Do people really not know this stuff here? I thought this is where intellectual geeks talked about new and exciting concepts. Not praising companies and bashing others for doing the same things.
Oh wait, silly me... (This is the year 2004, and slashdot has turned into geeks and AOL users, that are either new to this stuff or just fan boys/girls of a singular concept or platform without knowing much of the rest of the world)
especially considering NT 4.0 was a 64bit OS on Alpha back in 1996
Wrong - Windows NT for Alpha/AXP was NOT 64-bit. It used the Alpha's 32-bit mode. This was a well-known issue at the time. (I was working for government environmental monitoring facility at the time, and we had some company come in and demo NT on an AlphaServer for us, so I learned a thing or two about it.)
Also, Microsoft may have internal builds of 64-bit Windows, but no shipping products for IA64 or x86_64 so far. That's right, not one. So yes, MS is very much behind the curve. Linux was 64-bit on Alpha some time ago, for example.
Sam: "That was needlessly cryptic."
Max: "I'd be peeing my pants if I wore any!"