You know, the more I look at it, the more I find Mac OS X to be what I believe is the most viable platform in the entire universe - and not simply from an end-user standpoint. I’ve been reading up a lot on OS X Server, and I have to say that I’m very interested in what it has to offer.
Something that combines the flexibility of a UNIX-based operating system with the user-friendliness (and some would say more than that) of Windows Server, along with the cross-platform compatibility that comes along with an implementation of UNIX, is something that is very interesting indeed. It’s even relatively cheap (at $1K for unlimited-client versions).
This is something that’s come up as we’ve been working at integrating some kind of Linux-based solution at Concordia Seminary - where I’m headed back next year. I’ve been the Linux-meister for a while now, trying to figure out where to place the server in our network, which services we’d like to liberate from our existing Windows-based servers, and how we’d like the two to cross-talk when possible. I’ve always thought that we should move away from the ridiculousness of Exchange and Windows Server 2000 as a combination platter, but didn’t have the expertise or the patience to suffer through configuring an LDAP-based solution that we could integrate with Samba and work into our existing infrastructure.
The main problem I’d face in convincing people about this one is that we are so heavily dependent on Exchange now that it would be very difficult to convince people that we should move away from it (and, in turn, cripple a lot of people’s experiences with Outlook). IMHO, the one thing that’s really going in Outlook/Exchange’s favor is the ease with which both handle shared mail folders - and, in reality, how much easier and well-developed Exchange is compared to IMAP, both on the server and the client side.
But a Mac OS server with underlying UNIX-based services? One that matches a fairly easy-to-use GUI (which, contrary to what the /. crowd would likely have you believe, is NOT either KDE or Gnome) - and has all the power and user-management you can think up? OS X Server is, in my opinion, an interesting proposition.
I think I’ve been convinced that my home server - you have to understand that my dream home has a minimum of two workstations and a server - will likely be something running OS X.
And really, the conclusion I’ve been led to recently is that the Windows-based world is due for some kind of horrible meltdown - conflicting standards, hardware incompatibilities, security problems, virus susceptibility, you name it - it’s a problem with Windows that doesn’t look like it’s going to be solved anytime soon.
Linux is not even close to ready for any kind of mass acceptance.
A market prediction of mine is based on the success of the iPod (and, in many ways, the success of iTunes on Windows-based machines). I think Apple is in a particular place where they can once again endear themselves to the student/education market, and to the public sector in general. With $5 billion in the bank and no debt, I think Apple is in a position to take some risks and try to regain some of their lost marketshare in the next five to ten years.
Now, I don’t think Jobs is really wanting to reach up and smack Microsoft for a good one - I don’t think he’s ambitious to the point where he’d like to take everything over for himself - and I don’t see that happening, simply on account of the cost-benefit of the Windows world. Buying Macs is expensive to say the least - I’ve found this out as I’ve started shopping.
But I do think Apple is here to stay.
And I think my next computer is going to be a Mac.
(You didn’t just read me type that.)
