Steve Jobs Reassured Customer Concerned for Mac OS X Server's Future

[Mr. Gates]

"Jobs of course has a clever way of selectively addressing customer questions so as to not give away too much information"


I don't think its all that clever.

If fact I see it as being kinda pompous.

Can't he just give a straight answer ?

It's not like his company is really all that good at keeping secrets.

I think instead of "No" ...He should have said " I don't Know"

And really , If you disagree, show me what supposed Vision Apple has had for their server line or in what capacity Apple views Enterprise solutions as Serious.

 

[tseitz89]

OS X Server has no reason to be discontinued, the amount of work that goes into it is small compared to everything else. The differences between regular OS X and Server aren't much more than programs installed on it and a little backbone work.

 

[Porco]

Ok

 

[mdriftmeyer]

Whoops brain fart. Yes I know OSX is more or less Unix compliant - I was really thinking of the ecosystem of enterprise utilities that have grown up around Windows Server, IBM systems, various Linuxes, Oracle etc et al.

I'm not seeing the same enterprise ecosystem around OSX Server. If you're going to use a whole bunch of Linux enterprise tools, then might as well just run a Linux server.

More or less? It's UNIX O3 Certified. Windows isn't. Neither is Linux. The POSIX stack in Linux is incomplete. Same on Windows.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

A few expectations for OS X Server 10.7

I expect an end-to-end management solution for the OS X Ecosystem. That includes all desktop, laptops, entertainment [AppleTV] and embedded iOS Solutions to be manageable from Server.

I expect OS X Server to extend it's publishing services, security and remote management services.

I expect Web Services to get a huge upgrade.

On and on.

I expect a Distributed Network extension service for OpenCL with Grand Central Dispatch to distribute parallel processing tasks wherever a client node has cycles to contribute.

On and on.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

That poll would be the very definition of sampling bias, of course. IT people seem generally dismissive of systems that may not require their constant supervision. All I know is that I must be doing something wrong, as my Mac Pro servers have been flawless in our businesses for 8 years. "Big fail" is must mean something different to you, I guess.

and boom someone who does not get it.
If you server requires constant supervision you are doing something wrong. If anything you should be able to go away for a week and not worry about anything going wrong.

Either way you have clearly showed that you have no understanding of what a true server is. Using a Mac Pro server is nothing more than running a Home server. That is low grade and not server grade.

As for more OT. No matter what SJ says Apple has already proven untrustworthy in IT. Right now someone recommended Apple servers is a quick way to be shown the door. I would not trust Apple in my IT room.

 

[frunkis54]

Exactly.


Steve said he was stepping away from day to day operations, which will be handled by Tom Cook, but will still be involved with any "major strategic decisions" and I would assume that life/death of their server OS falls into that category.


Lethal

Who is Tom Cook? Do you perhaps mean Tim Cook?

 

[Mr. Gates]

I expect an end-to-end management solution for the OS X Ecosystem. That includes all desktop, laptops, entertainment [AppleTV] and embedded iOS Solutions to be manageable from Server.

I expect OS X Server to extend it's publishing services, security and remote management services.

I expect Web Services to get a huge upgrade.

On and on.

I expect a Distributed Network extension service for OpenCL with Grand Central Dispatch to distribute parallel processing tasks wherever a client node has cycles to contribute.

On and on.

I wish you were at the helm over there in the OSX Server Camp.

Your Expectations are probably Weird Ideas to the Monkeys Currently running the show

 

[seek3r]

and boom someone who does not get it.
If you server requires constant supervision you are doing something wrong. If anything you should be able to go away for a week and not worry about anything going wrong.

That'd be true if we didn't have these things called users (or software package updates, or disk failures, or power failures, or AC blowouts, or the lab next door flooding your machine room, or failed network switches, or torque/maui crashing, or....).

...dealt with all of those when I was working as an admin, the work of an admin is never done!
...but yes, the server itself and your OS should not have to be babysat

 

[Kenrik]

MacOS X (client) is standard BSD Unix. Add a GUI to toggle things like Apache on/off and you have MacOS X Server. Unlike XServe, it costs Apple very little to offer this package.

It's the small workgroups that MacOS X Server is designed for and appeals to. Those workgroups can be quite happy with a Mac Pro or Mini. Larger operations such as universities and some research centers will need rack-mounted gear and that's where virtualization will make sense.

True, all OSX server really does is make it easier to setup what can be setup on ANY install of OSX. Really it's only Apps like iCal Server or iChat Server that are not just open source stuff repackaged.

Here's the issue for Apple though... In my Advertising Department we used a G5 Xserve. It was a good machine an had a good life of around 6 years (still works but it's too slow for our needs now)

Apple canceled the XServe just as we were getting ready to buy one.

Now we are running a XServe Hackintosh...

Xeon W5530, 12GB Ram, 64gig SSD, 3Ware Raid Card -> 4TB in Raid 5. OSX Server 10.6.

Apple took away our off the shelf solution, we made our own. That is money our of Apples pocket and into Newegg's

 

[Kenrik]

Using a Mac Pro server is nothing more than running a Home server. That is low grade and not server grade.

So not true..

 

[Rodimus Prime]

So not true..

ok a powerful home grade server. Mac Pro is far from a what I would call a business grade server. Anyone who things different I would say is not fit to be called an IT admin.

 

[calaverasgrande]

poor timing. From what I understand Citrix is about to come to the Mac platform with some heavy duty VM stuff

 

[KnightWRX]

That poll would be the very definition of sampling bias, of course. IT people seem generally dismissive of systems that may not require their constant supervision.

Really ? As an IT person, I'm generally dismissive of systems that require my constant supervision. I've got enough crap to deal with that a broken down server is not on my list of something else I want to work on.

When a system breaks, I want it to be as fast as possible to fix and I want it to last as long as possible before it breaks again.

 

[zorinlynx]

Steve is violating an important rule of netiquette: Your signature line should never be longer than your message.

 

[Mr. Gates]

Don't let my name fool you, ..I like Mac's for certain things.

But Servers are not one of them.

Windows Server FTW

 

[nospeed411]

If you could abbreviate the word 'no', I assure you Steve Jobs would.

n'

 

[AidenShaw]

There's no need for physical servers anymore where OS X Server is generally used.

Well, you do need some physical servers to run the virtual machines!

When a system breaks, I want it to be as fast as possible to fix and I want it to last as long as possible before it breaks again.

And, you want the "breakage" to be in a subsystem with redundancy so that the disk or power supply (the two least reliable things in my experience) can be hot-swapped the next day or next week with zero downtime.

You also want management tools that will log and alert you to the pre-failure symptoms, so that failures can be averted and downtime can be scheduled.

And note that with virtualization, it's possible to "hot-swap" the VM to a different server - so that users have no idea that you've turned the power off on a server.

 

[Kenrik]

ok a powerful home grade server. Mac Pro is far from a what I would call a business grade server. Anyone who things different I would say is not fit to be called an IT admin.

Depends on what "Business" you're talking about.

No it's not a Datacenter Server, but if you're talking about media creation groups, designers etc.. Then yes it is business grade as it fills the role very well. OSX Server is best for small workgroups, under 100 users all using it's services.

To use OSX Server/Hardware just for MySQL/Apache is downright stupid.

You're better using Linux/Cent/BSD.

 

[AidenShaw]

"Business grade" - LOL

No it's not a Datacenter Server, but if you're talking about media creation groups, designers etc.. Then yes it is business grade as it fills the role very well. OSX Server is best for small workgroups, under 100 users all using it's services.

You can get small tower servers with redundant power, hot swap disks, internal hardware RAID with 1 GiB battery-backed cache...

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/poweredge-t310/pd

...but not from Apple.

 

[agendum]

It reminds me of the scene in Mel Brooks' Silent Movie where they asked Marcel Marceau to be in the movie and he ironically spoke his response.

Which segues nicely "The Party" (1968) where a Marceau-styled waiter chides Peter Sellers' character, "MIME is money!"

 

[Rot'nApple]

Jobs of course has a clever way of selectively addressing customer questions so as to not give away too much information, so readers should be careful of reading too much into his simple comment. His response could optimistically be taken to mean that Mac OS X Server's future is secure for the foreseeable future, although a more skeptical interpretation could be applied to suggest that Mac OS X Server may or may not be under consideration for discontinuation but that any discontinuation would be a bit further down the road and not "not far behind" the Xserve's demise.

In other words, SNL's "It's Pat!"
/
/
/

 

[qtx43]

and boom someone who does not get it.
If you server requires constant supervision you are doing something wrong. If anything you should be able to go away for a week and not worry about anything going wrong.

Either way you have clearly showed that you have no understanding of what a true server is. Using a Mac Pro server is nothing more than running a Home server. That is low grade and not server grade.

As for more OT. No matter what SJ says Apple has already proven untrustworthy in IT. Right now someone recommended Apple servers is a quick way to be shown the door. I would not trust Apple in my IT room.

I'm sure you know a lot more about business IT than I do, and I generally agree (especially about Apple not being trustworthy with lack of roadmaps for business), but I think you have a communication problem. Yes, using Mac Pros as enterprise servers would be ridiculous, but the word "server" encompasses more than that. A home server is a server too, and a small business running a few server functions on a workstation is a server too. Adding the word "true" is meaningless.

 

[ChrisA]

Apple would be shooting themselves in the foot by discontinuing OS X Server. I can't seem them doing that anytime soon.

Didn't they say the Mac Mini Server sells like hot cakes?

Why? You can do anyting you need a server to do with plain old Mac OSX and maybe some open source software. Apple's best plan would be to consolidate and have only "Mac OSX" the only reason to have two is so you can charge more for one of them.

Maybe I'm missing something, what is it "Server" can do that you can't do without it?

 

[LethalWolfe]

I'm sure you know a lot more about business IT than I do, and I generally agree (especially about Apple not being trustworthy with lack of roadmaps for business), but I think you have a communication problem. Yes, using Mac Pros as enterprise servers would be ridiculous, but the word "server" encompasses more than that. A home server is a server too, and a small business running a few server functions on a workstation is a server too. Adding the word "true" is meaningless.

I don't think adding the term "true server" is any more meaningless than the term "home server". As you pointed out there are multiple tiers of servers and distinguishing between them helps prevent confusion. Sure saying "true" versus "professional" or "high end" can come off as snobby but I don't think it is meaningless.


Lethal