- Mac OS X Server Supports Only Macs
- It's Not a "Real" UNIX Flavor
- There's Nothing You Can't Get for Free Using Open Source Technology
- Mac OS X Server Is Expensive
- Mac OS X Runs Only on Expensive Apple Hardware
- Mac OS X Doesn't Support Virtualization
- Mac OS X Server Doesn't Scale Well
- Management of Mac OS X Requires a Specialized Skill Set
- Mac OS X Server Requires Specialized Administration Tools and Offers Limited Remote Management
- There's No Enterprise-Level Fault Tolerance or Disaster Recovery Options
Ask any tech-savvy individual what Apple is best known for, and Mac OS X Server isn’t like to be the first product to come to mind. Despite being a robust platform that offers many advantages to businesses and schools of all shapes, sizes, and desktop platforms, many misconceptions still remain about Apple’s eight-year-old server OS. In this article, we’ll take on the top misconceptions IT staffers and systems administrators often make about it.
Mac OS X Server Supports Only Macs
One of the biggest misconceptions about Mac OS X Server is that because it is an Apple product, it can only be used to provide services and support for Mac clients. In actuality, Mac OS X Server provides built-in support for Windows clients in a number of ways. First, it provides native support for SMB file and printer sharing. Beyond these basic services, Open Directory (Apple’s native directory service) includes the ability to host a Windows NT-style domain, complete with support for home directories and roaming profiles, as well as for authenticating access to clients from the Windows login dialog using network accounts. Mac OS X Server can even function as a member server in an Active Directory domain, and provides a range of options for fully integrating with Active Directory and any other LDAP-based directory environments.
Beyond support for Windows clients and integration with Windows servers, Mac OS X Server also provides support for a long list of platform-neutral services including network services (DHCP, NAT, DNS, VPN, etc.), LPR and IPP print services, instant messaging (via XMPP/Jabber), shared calendaring (using CalDAV), NFS file sharing, and a range of Internet services.





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