Mac OS X Server
Mac OS X Server is the server edition of the Mac OS. It is based on the BSD-Unix-based operating system that Apple Computer acquired from NeXT Computer and which formed the basis of the current Mac OS X. Prior to Mac OS X, Apple's AppleShare services provided server applications such as file and printer sharing and user management. The first version of Mac OS X Server was a hybrid of OPENSTEP from NeXT Computer and Mac OS 9. The GUI looked more like OPENSTEP did, with an emulation layer for running legacy Mac OS 9 based applications. WebObjects was included with the server package. On May 21 2001 Apple released a version of their server operating system based on Mac OS X 10.0. The server version is nearly identical to the standard version. Mac OS X Server mainly adds software designed to ease administration of services like web, email, and user services. Most of OS X Server's services are based on standard BSD tools, for example the Apache web server; Mac OS X Server adds a GUI interface to these services. An exception, however, are User services, which are based on (NeXT's) NetInfo. This was followed by server releases based on Mac OS X 10.1 (September 25 2001), Mac OS X v10.2 (August 24 2002) and Mac OS X v10.3 (October 24 2003). The 10.3 based release, presents a mature, fully featured server environment. User and file management are provided via Open Directory, an LDAP compatible server architecture. The new Workgroup Manager interface improves configuration significantly. Many common network services are provided such as NTP, SNMP, Web Server, Mail Server, LDAP, AppleTalk, Print Server. The inclusion of SAMBA version 3 allows tight integration with Windows clients and servers. MySQL v4.0.16 and PHP v4.3.7 are also included.
Criticisms Windows Server 2003 (and earlier versions) have a feature that Microsoft call Terminal Services, where the server can provide multiple remote graphical logins to a number of clients (on various operating systems). Some users would like Mac OS X Server to have a similar feature. [1]
Version history 1999: Mac OS X Server 1.0 July 3 2001: Mac OS X Server Update 10.0.4
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