xserve

Missing the Xserve? Sonnet has a rack-mounted answer

Apple's Xserve computers were a rack-mountable line of Macintosh systems designed for enterprise use; however, in 2011 Apple abandoned the project, leaving only its Mac Pro and Mac Mini with available server options. Though anyone can download the OS X Server tools from the Mac App Store and convert any current Mac into a server system, some may wish to get a rack-mounted setup going again.

Fortunately, even though the demise of the Xserve means there aren't officially supported rack-based options from Apple, there are some ways you can get your Macs back into the rack. Of course, … Read more

Xserve's death not a deterrent for many IT admins

Those IT administrators who felt suckerpunched by Steve Jobs' decision to nix the Xserve seem to be recovering just fine.

There wasn't exactly weeping and gnashing of teeth (at least that we know of), but a lot of loyal Mac users in IT departments were seriously disappointed a few weeks ago when Apple said that as of January 31 the assembly line churning out the Xserve would be permanently halted. There was talk from some of ditching Macs altogether at work in a fit of bitter disappointment, and in light of some anticipated major technical challenges.

With a few … Read more

IT admins mourn Xserve's death

Not many MacBook or iPhone users are going to weep over the cancellation of an Apple server.

In fact, they probably didn't know Apple even made them. But when Apple announced it was shutting down production of the Xserve effective January 31, a very specific group of people took notice.

The Apple faithful inside corporate IT departments large and small are feeling jilted by Apple's sudden cold feet in the enterprise computing market. And though the announcement came last last week, the full impact of Apple's decision is still being absorbed.

Apple's own support forums are … Read more

Apple seeds Mac OS X 10.6.6 ahead of 10.6.5, announces demise of Xserve

Ahead of the public release of Mac OS X 10.6.5, Apple has seeded Mac OS X 10.6.6 to developers. The update for 10.6.6 notes that developers will have support for fetching and renewing receipts in the forthcoming Mac App Store.

Apple has also announced that Xserve will no longer be available after January 31, 2011. Apple will continue to support existing Xserve units but will no longer produce new ones, leaving the MacPro with Mac OS X Server as the lone high-powered server solution.… Read more

Apple retires Xserve in favor of Mac Pro Server

After January 31, you will no longer be able to buy an Xserve, the Apple server meant for large businesses, the company said via a note posted on its site today.

Apple says it will however continue to support the hardware, including warranties and customer service.

Close watchers of the company shouldn't be too surprised about the sudden axing of the Xserve. Apple hadn't updated the hardware since April 2009, which is a long time between updates for a company that keeps its hardware on a 9-month to a year update cycle.

In its place, Apple is offering … Read more

How the enterprise came to Apple

Over the years, Apple has taken aim at business computing a number of times. Its last such foray was in 2002 when it rolled out its Xserve rackmount server.

That move was partly precipitated by Apple's introduction of the BSD Unix-based OS X operating system, which adhered to far more standards, interoperated with other systems far better, and was just less unique than previous Apple operating systems. The move could also be seen as Apple trying to do something, anything, that would let it break out of its declining niche on the desktop.

The Xserve still exists in a … Read more

Parallels goes bare-metal on Apple's Xserve

Parallels has introduced a bare-metal virtualization product for Apple's Xserve that allows Windows and Linux virtual machines to run side-by-side with the Mac OS X operating system.

Parallels Server for Mac Bare Metal Edition, unveiled Wednesday at the Parallels Summit 2010 in Miami, is aimed at companies wishing to standardize on Mac hardware and at cloud services providers that want to add Mac OS X capabilities, the company said.

The company's original virtualization product for Xserve allowed instances of Mac OS X, Linux, or Windows to run as virtual machines on top of an OS X host. With … Read more

Apple releases RAID card and iMac Graphics firmware updates

In addition to the security and system updates released earlier today, Apple has firmware updaters available for iMac graphics as well as Apple RAID cards.… Read more

Apple updates Xserve with new Xeons

Apple unveiled an updated version of its Xserve server Tuesday, adding Intel's latest server processors.

The Xserve is possibly the least-promoted product in Apple's lineup, but the company has certain educational and creative-professional customers that like to run a Mac OS X environment top to bottom. Still, the Xserve accounts for a fraction of Apple's revenue, although it caused a few problems for future iPod and iPhone chief Mark Papermaster upon his departure from IBM.

The new models come with the option of one or two of Intel's quad-core 2.26GHz Xeon processors and 3GB of … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 843: Nine legal uses for BitTorrent

We asked. You answered. Our listeners provided not seven, not eight, but nine real legal legitimate uses for BitTorrent. Plus Apple's getting into an old-fashioned spat with IBM. Just like 1979 all over again. Plus Rafe says stop whining about Windows 7. Listen now: Download today's podcast Episode 843

National Novel Writing Month starts tomorrow http://www.nanowrimo.org/

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Apple hires top IBM chip designer and blade server guru http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10079494-37.html