Apple Gatekeeper- looks like OSX is moving towards a closed App store type system....

[mostapha]

A rack-mounted mac pro that actually has a few full-size PCIe slots would be awesome.

And about FCP…I'm afraid the damage might be done. Pros don't upgrade all that often. And if they were already drove towards Avid or Adobe…a software update won't bring them back. I could be wrong, though……a lot of people might have just not upgraded.

[tombruton69]

I cant see them updating x serve it was such a flop last time. I don't think Apple have the resources in place ATM to really try the server market. I think they will stick with the mac mini joke. They would have to make there own OS to really be competitive

[mostapha]

I'll agree with you that they're not competitive, but IMHO, I don't think it's really a matter of capabilities. It's just that anyone who could/would run OS X as a server could also run some form of Linux, Solaris, BSD, etc.. And they would because of Apple's track record with the X Serves.

And the Mac Mini servers are perfectly awesome for home use. They're just not very cost effective compared to building something. And you don't have to worry about running pro software on a server……unless you have to run ISS or a more pure unix to do it.

[tombruton69]

I'll agree with you that they're not competitive, but IMHO, I don't think it's really a matter of capabilities. It's just that anyone who could/would run OS X as a server could also run some form of Linux, Solaris, BSD, etc.. And they would because of Apple's track record with the X Serves.

And the Mac Mini servers are perfectly awesome for home use. They're just not very cost effective compared to building something. And you don't have to worry about running pro software on a server……unless you have to run ISS or a more pure unix to do it.

there perfectly good for home use if you only use apple products. If you have any other devices your out of luck

[ellgieff]

there perfectly good for home use if you only use apple products. If you have any other devices your out of luck

Could you elaborate on this? I've considered a Mac Mini for home server purposes multiple times (partly because of the form factor) - what am I likely to be unable to do with one?

[tombruton69]

Could you elaborate on this? I've considered a Mac Mini for home server purposes multiple times (partly because of the form factor) - what am I likely to be unable to do with one?

What are you hoping for it to do as a home server. Ive actually just done a little research to check things are still true. Its actually got worse. This is mainly due to the lack of samba support due to licensing problems. (the license is different to FreeBSD the OS that forms most the nitty gritty of OSX) Apple didn't want to pay so dropped support and now use its own version of SMB.

This means that it should work but in reality it really doesn't. The detection of windows and Linux PC's are great but some other devices can have issues, music players and media streamers. writing files or fetching files from windows is hit or miss.

Rubbish file format used for storage. ZTS is awesome, unfortunately never got released for mac. 3rd party devs have made support but its hit and miss. Why do you need to use ZTS, awesome seek times, awesome data recovery, awesome speeds on rebuilding drives, awesomely intelligent, it doesn't serve up corrupted files.

What else are you hoping to do with your home server. Im not saying OSX server is bad for home use(its laughable commercially) just that things are going to be easier on the alternative and cheaper.

So you need to get windows server 2008!!!!!!!

Sorry that was a mistype. Never ever ever get windows server, its even less secure than OSX its just as slow, just as unstable and not awesome.

Use Linux if your new to servers and linux. Get ubuntu server, there is amazing documentation, awsome community support, its more secure, faster, more reliable, better web gui thats easier to install.(who wants a tv hanging out there server. Oh yea its cheaper and ul probly have a better system.

are you ok with building pc's

[mostapha]

You're recommending that people use samba at all?

Really?

Samba was a joke when it was invented and hasn't gotten better. the only reason it exists is MS's business practices that eventually lead to an anti-trust hearing.

[tombruton69]

You're recommending that people use samba at all?

Really?

Samba was a joke when it was invented and hasn't gotten better. the only reason it exists is MS's business practices that eventually lead to an anti-trust hearing.

there is no real alternative apart from SMB. Samba ain perfect but its the best at what it does. Pair it with ZTS and your ready to rock

[mostapha]

there is no real alternative apart from SMB.

NFS
Active Directory
Open Directory
AFP
OpenSSH
…………………………

[tombruton69]

NFS
Active Directory
Open Directory
AFP
OpenSSH
…………………………

Open Directory uses SMB
AFP is great until you hit somthing non Apple, then your using SMB, SMB to AFP is an issue
OpenSSH is good, but its file transfer system is really designed for going across the net and not designed for blasting large files across a local network

there is no perfect solution but I feel samba with zts seems to be the best atm