Welcome to... GingerCat Software
We make software for the Web the Macintosh and linux
(among other things!) We hope you enjoy our site
Blog | New Site
|
Apple and the dead Xserve If you have ever rung Dell as a business partner to purchase a server it is an amazing experience. They have people who know the hardware and software top to bottom. They can recommend configuration of hardware and software. If you just want a cheep machine that's ok as well! They will help with bringing down the pricing (they will barter with you!) and all in all they are hungry to sell you a machine. Contrast this with apple who have dropped the ball on the server market a number of times. In fact at least 3 times. It first happened with A/UX a good product never really followed thru. Then the Apple Network Server (nice beast but again something left out in the could, it sat around for about a year before being killed off) and now at the end of last year they have done something similar to the Xserve! This I'm sure has damaged their reputation with the enterprise market. It's probably beyond repair. This whole situation is frustrating. You can still purchase the mac Mini Server and it is a good machine for a SMB or personal use. But If you want something with more poke your going to have to order apple software and hardware separately and role your own machine, in a Mac Pro case! Oh and you can forget about things like dual power supplies etc! The apple mac os X server software (still available thankfully!) is some great software. It's probably the fastest way go get a server up and running on the net that is available today (and this is from someone who is in love with Ubuntu)! I was very annoyed when apple decided to kill the Xserve. I can understand why this might be so and this clip seems to sum things up very well from the point of Mr Steven Jobs. But I think the world needs the Xserve (or something similar). We need a competitive machine that can run mac os X server in a 1u configuration. We need dual power supply's and all that other top end hardware goodness (if we should want it). Apple are the only people who can build a real mac server and we know they build great servers. The problem is they just don't follow thru with staying competitive! So to conclude a note to Mr Jobs. Find a way to service all your clients who want servers - this includes people who want an affordable machine right up to someone who wants a top of the line god box. Put some smart people in a call center somewhere and offer them real incentives with regard selling. Make sure the thing is as configurable as possible and for the first year or so be preparied to just break even. Your going to have to make up for that bad rep you have! Oh and give us back a 1U form factor server - Please! 
|