macOS Server discontinued after years on life support
- Reference: 1650632592
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/04/22/macos_server_dead/
- Source link:
The [1]move is arguably long overdue. Much of what made macOS Server a server [2]was deprecated in 2018 as the company announced plans to stop the likes of DHCP and DNS in its product and directed users to handy open-source alternatives.
Apple Open Directory and [3]Profile Manager lingered on, with the latter being used for configuration management for Apple devices in an organization. Now, however, that last stub of functionality is deemed obsolete and Apple has warned that while many bits of macOS Server will live on macOS, Profile Manager will not. So the time for dodging Mobile Device Management (MDM) is up.
FROM OUR ARCHIVES: Apple signs Xserve death warrant [4]READ MORE
If you really want to, you can still continue to download and use the app with macOS Monterey.
Apple signaled its lack of interest in the server business in 2010 as the company [5]ditched its Xserve family of rack servers . Still, it wasn't the end of the world. You could instead pick up a [6]Mac Mini installed with macOS Server . While not quite as capable as the rack-based product, it did the job and was relatively full-featured. Up until Apple started shunting its toys into macOS and axing those it didn't like.
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It was supposed to be so different. Up until version 10.7 (Lion), Mac OS X Server was a standalone product, starting out life in the wake of Apple's NeXT purchase. From Mac OS X Lion, the server component became an add-on to macOS and distributed via the App Store. Its price was slashed from $499 down to $49 before tumbling further while Apple sliced away at its features. Thereon the app received little more attention than the odd compatibility update before its parent threw in the towel.
For all its exotic and expensive hardware, Apple has not been a major player in the server space for some time (the company admitted as much a decade ago with the [11]demise of Xserve ).
[12]
On the other hand, there are plenty of open-source products that, coupled with what is present in the desktop and a bit of MDM magic, will do everything macOS Server did and more. However, for the sheer convenience of having all the tools in one place, coupled with a keen price, macOS Server will be missed. ®
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[1] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208312
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2018/01/29/farewell_to_macos_server/
[3] https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/profile-manager/pm9cz84lqi/mac
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2010/11/05/apple_kills_xserve/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2010/11/05/apple_kills_xserve/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2010/11/30/review_desktop_apple_mac_mini_server_2010/?page=1
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/21/apple_atlanta_union/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/20/google_android_app/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/19/apple_union_amazon/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/16/apple_m2_chips/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2010/11/05/apple_kills_xserve/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YmLRMKWqlYCoCutunR88NgAAARE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
A final shot to the head for a twitching zombie
I'm not sure why Apple chose to make the world watch as it slowly strangled the server app to death over years. Maybe it was just laziness and cheapness, not wanting to task enough people to port the parts they were keeping to standalone apps or back port them to the older OS versions. If that's the case they can join M$ in the DGAF club with the two settings interfaces.
We bailed when they started hiding the older features on newer OS versions. If you upgraded an older server then you still had all the menu Items active, but if you installed a fresh copy, no services for you. We realized that that made a bare metal restore scenario way to problematic a mess to risk in a clinch and retired everything but the OSX file shares. Cause when an old box dies, who wants to add an hour of hacking together an unsupported config on new hardware that won't happily take a direct restore of the old server image?
Now all we use is the cache service on an old mac mini. We'd have happily spent the money to keep most of those services alive if Apple wasn't negging us so hard. Funny that they sell rack mounts for the new pro towers still. All they had to do was release the individual services as apps in the store and people could have installed them on whatever recent version of OSX and mac hardware they pleased. Then they also could uncouple them from their OS teams release schedule, and they could be patched individually without taking other services down. Easier, cheaper, and a better solution for everyone. But nope, not the Apple way.
As the fruit company itself mentioned in its announcement
The purportedly most popular remaining features of the server product, Caching Server, File Sharing Server, and Time Machine Server, have over time become features of mac OS. So not so much third-party action necessary.