A new program lets buyers of the Mac OS X Server sign on for three years of unlimited access to software upgrades for the same price Apple charges for a single, onetime upgrade.
Apple Boosts Server Software License
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Finally time to upgrade to Jaguar
i really do need to figure this out, Actually, I can get people to pay me!
for updates for an os that is non functional.. in some ways … saaaweeeet
good summarisation Rajan.
the catch is getting people to pay $3-5000 for a $]-[17 computer thats non-upgradable ( & if so to a degree that is negligable) & then ALSO pay for updates on a FREE x86 OS. Hmm make a decent window manager for unix & Charge them out the 4$$ – IT’S A PLAN!!!!
There have been quite a few reports of the Workgroup Manager part of Mac OS X Server not working properly, some parts of it not working at all, etc. Ack!
I didn’t summarize it. Eugenia did.
And in case you were wondering, no, I’m not scouting around Mac news sites daily, it is just this pesky site called Google News….
I’m not sure everyone picked up this is for MacOS X Server, which is sold to run on PowerMacs (towers) and XServes (1U rackmounts), both of which are upgradable as hardware.
It’s all about value. An unlimited-seat license available for MacOS X Server, along with signing up for 3-years worth of updates? This saves many thousands of dollars over so-called “cost-effective” x86-based alternatives running Windows servers.
It’s also all about getting Apple servers out into the field. Nothing sells like the word of a systems administrator on what’s good.
As for MacOS X Server vs. Linux servers? We’ll have to see…
The XServe is the least upgradable IU rackmount server I have ever seen.
But it is really rare for a company, the enterprise, to upgrade their hardware beyond RAM and hard disk, and perhaps adding another Ethernet hub/switch.
Upgradeable 1U’s are a myth. Certainly Drives, Memory and perhaps a CPU are upgradeable. About the same as they are in your average laptop.
I’ve got Sun’s, Dell’s, HP’s, a couple of scratch builds (Gigabyte), and an XServe that I manage. I’ve had the case off of every one of them. If you say the XServe is the worst, I say the Sun (Netra) is. It’s terrible for improving it once you take delivery of it. A replacement hard drive is almost as much as the original machine was. The XServe is on par with a Dell 1650 in terms of flexability. The Dell is marginally cheaper for the hardware, but once you buy the obligatory OS, or blow the 30 hours of your $125 / hour salary on installing Linux or BSD (and properly configuring), you’ve more than made up the difference.