The article clearly states that Mac OS already has the same server functionalities built in, without the need for a standalone app anymore. So why are people complaining in this thread? Am I missing something?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Discontinues macOS Server
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I completely forgot this was even a thing. I've not run MacOS Server since I had a G5 tower in my office. Moved everything to linux servers. Much easier to accomplish what I needed. Interesting they're not making a successor with how powerful the Mac Studio is.
Lessons were learned after they abandoned XSERVE and XSERVE RAID systems intended for FCP (7 and previous). Small production studios invested heavily and basically were left with nice looking doorstops. It sort of happened with the G5 transition to Intel, but not in the same way. This Intel to AS transition is great for the consumer, but seriously would look elsewhere for enterprise or server style products until the transition is "complete". I'm sure there will be an AS subscription for business offering of some kind, eventually.
Only some of the features and functionality have been integrated into other apps. I imagine you can duplicate 90% of what MacOS Server did with packages you can install from Homebrew.
Yeah, why make sure you can keep every customer in the ecosystem? Why make wireless hardware, server hardware, and network hardware? It's not like Microsoft ensured they had software for every customer and guaranteed their success that way...oh wait, that's EXACTLY what they did.
Everyone over 40 on the Apple Executive Team should be fired...and that's everyone. Time for some new blood and new ideas.
Subscription based service for business, more money for Apple.
macOS Server was broken down to its bones, then replaced by a money eating beast.
Of course, it includes iCloud storage and even AppleCare+ with 2 repair credits...
Let's do the math, it may actually be convenient for those of us with multiple devices.
Server allowed you to monitor the Time Machine backup status of clients. Today, that's pretty hard to do.
That's fine, mate. I clearly said "some of the features and functionality have been integrated into other apps". Not everything was. That's also why I said "90% you can get from Homebrew". Please don't @me for no reason.
Everything of MacOS Server that anyone need to use today is already build in ..... but people will still find a way to complain . MacOS Server is no longer needed simple as that ... and even if you can run your own mail server on macOS no business should run there own mail server inhouse it should be cloud based and same goes from lots of other services aswell . we live in 2020 its cloud based, microservices, serverless, aws etc
I missed the simplicity of the interface. I only ever used it for VPN but that was one of the first features they dropped. I use WireGuard now, I only with there was a nice friendly UI for setting up profiles for it, like apple would make.
The problem was that Apple's server didn't really offer much that a RedHat (or other) Linux server couldn't match or beat - so it wasn't a practical choice for the broader market. And Apple never seemed to put a whole lot of effort into tuning their server software - mysql (don't remember if it was mariadb way back then) for some reason ran several times faster on Red Hat than on OS X Server (on the same hardware).
The XServe RAID was quite nice, though.
MacOS Server never really targeted the enterprise like Microsoft did with Windows Server. It was great for small offices, but along came competition from the likes of Synology and others. On the MDM front, they were early to the market with Profile Manager, but it was quickly surpassed by products like Jamf.
Alas, it's the end of an era.
While they did use 3rd party products under the hood; they were open source. There would theoretically be nothing preventing Apple from cloning the source code and compiling it. For instance, file sharing on MacOS is just SAMBA under the hood. The same is true for printer sharing on MacOS; as it's CUPS (albeit, Apple is the sponsor organization behind it). They utilize tons of open source software in MacOS that's been compiled for their silicon.
Given the way Apple designed it, yes! I had no idea this was even still available this long, really. I remember long ago, people using it were constantly frustrated because they needed to make changes on the server that Apple didn't put into the GUI. Always came down to finding some hidden or obscure configuration file to manually edit. (And after you deal with enough of that, you ask yourself why you didn't just use Linux or FreeBSD as your server instead!)
I think the right way to do this was always to sell a separate "MacOS Server" operating system and to design it so pretty much ALL the possible configuration details for the services it offers are truly "point and click" configurable. Clearly, Apple lost interest in making an effort. Too bad, because *so* many people run and pay a LOT to license Microsoft Windows Server primarily for that reason. Apple could have given MacOS Server away free to anyone buying a Mac as an optional installation to regular MacOS, and it would have helped justify a lot of sales of high-spec Mac Pros and the like. But just treating it like an "app" you bolt onto regular MacOS doesn't give people any confidence it's a serious product.....
I did my fair share of macOS Server deployments over the years, but its time has long since come and gone.
I mostly used it for running file sharing, Time Machine server, hosting applications, running NetBoot, Profile Manager, Caching Server, etc. The last time I attempted to use it for network routing plus DHCP, DNS, VPN, etc., it was back in the PowerMac G5 days and the hardware simply couldn't handle it all. Profile Manager was overtaken by modern MDMs, NetBoot was deprecated, file sharing migrated to NAS units, etc. WAN speeds have improved enough that Caching Server isn't much of a help. Everything else is better hosted in the cloud.
It's been real.
I mostly used it for running file sharing, Time Machine server, hosting applications, running NetBoot, Profile Manager, Caching Server, etc. The last time I attempted to use it for network routing plus DHCP, DNS, VPN, etc., it was back in the PowerMac G5 days and the hardware simply couldn't handle it all. Profile Manager was overtaken by modern MDMs, NetBoot was deprecated, file sharing migrated to NAS units, etc. WAN speeds have improved enough that Caching Server isn't much of a help. Everything else is better hosted in the cloud.
It's been real.
Imagine macOS Server with a photos integration which would allow you to use everything you can do with photos / photo stream / sync / share on your own server, without iCloud. Or better, a self hosted iCloud including the keychain… but yes, we should all switch to monthly payed iCloud.