It is hard to say one couldn't see this coming. Of the few features left in Server, the only one I remained interested in was Profile Manager, and that hasn't worked right for a bit now. I'm fine with an Apple that wants to do hardware and operating systems more than software, but I wish they'd make Profile Manager-like features more available for regular people, not just Education or Business users. It would be infinitely useful to have such features for iPhones of family members who aren't so good with tech and could use a heavier hand in making sure the device is up to date and findable when lost. But I digress. I'm glad it's just ending, even if it's barely a surprise.
In the mid 2000s, it looked like there was good hope that Apple would finally make inroads into corporate IT. In addition to their professional software suites (Shake, Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Aperture, Motion, etc.), they had already released XServe, which was really good by those days' standards, as well as XSan -- these products solved many of the needs of small professional creative groups. Mac OS X server's abilities to handle small offices' needs seemed like a prelude to larger things.<p>Sadly, those hopes never really panned out. Apple is historically reticent to entering a market they aren't confident they have a good chance of dominating if they execute well, and their own growing internal use of Linux servers (and maybe other 3rd-party corporate domain/directory services, like Active Directory?) probably persuaded them to scale back their efforts around 2010.
I worked at a company that used the phrase "getting jamf'd" as a verb to describe when the management system broke things on your macbook.<p>E.g., "I'll be able to test that code change in a bit, I got Jamf'd pretty hard this morning and now my build is broken..."
We purchased the Server app back in 2014 because it was an inexpensive and very functional MDM solution for our corporate Apple products. After all, it was only $20 and we could easily run it on a Mac Mini on our network.<p>It worked incredibly well, but Apple really didn't evolve it much since then and we eventually ditched it entirely in 2017 for Jamf. Since then I've regarded it as a lost enterprise management opportunity for Apple.
I was trying to remember where I encountered the macOS Server app before, and why I once considered buying a license. Then I recalled:<p><a href="https://www.cyrusimap.org/imap/concepts/features/event-notifications.html#imap-features-event-notifications-applepushservice" rel="nofollow">https://www.cyrusimap.org/imap/concepts/features/event-notif...</a><p>It's too bad that, assuming that documentation is still up to date, Apple doesn't allow smaller IMAP mail providers to integrate with the push notification service.
Apple also discontinued the MDM product they acquired (Fleetsmith) today.<p>Source: <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213238" rel="nofollow">https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213238</a>
Apple does pretty clients.<p>They are completely unable to do "enterprise" which basically means ensuring your document is where you left it last and being able to restore it if you misplace it. Oh and being reasonably sure that the right people can access your doc and no one else.<p>Apple does profit and worrying about ACLs is not profitable. They leave all that boring nonsense to MS. They do pretty and expensive.<p>There is of course Linux too but we are too boring and niche to worry about.
What Apple need to do now is make their devices more linux-server friendly out of the box.
I have scripts set up on all of my storage servers to scan for and remove .DS_Store files, as it essentially doubles the amount of files on a server which for indexing is incredibly bad. My complaints to the Mac users were usually met with replies such as 'Well if you ran Mac server that wouldnt be a problem'. Now they dont have that arguement to stand on.<p>I am aware of the command to stop apple devices writing these files to network shares, but regularly our mac users 'forget' to run this command after setting up new profiles or upgrading OSs etc.
self hosted will come back some day after everyone realizes that paying $1.99/mo doesn't let you disconnect costs from growth as you scale.<p>Or at least I hope.
A lot of the features in macOS Server are now built into the default install for MacOS (caching server etc.) while others were discontinued long before the latest version of server came out (Wiki Server etc.)
This is a bit disappointing. Apple is uniquely equipped to disrupt enterprise/datacenter, having the M1 chip in their arsenal. Among many other benefits, the M1 chip in the datacenter would result in massive PUE reduction. It would also bring about some healthy competition, as currently Intel and AMD are making money hand over fist with what they charge their enterprise customers.<p>Perhaps Apple felt that Linux is too advanced nowadays, and that their BSD internals would need significant work just to catch up.<p>It's a real shame.
Surprised they didn't recommend Wiki.js under the Wiki section, imo it's the best modern Wiki software right now. Might not be as battle-hardened as Mediawiki but my experience it's more pleasant to use <a href="https://js.wiki/" rel="nofollow">https://js.wiki/</a>
I'm not sad to see it go. What I vaguely remember about macOS Server was that macOS upgrades were fraught regarding whether the macOS Server would function normally afterward requiring me spending time trying to debug what was wrong. Since macOS eventually started offering some of those services, like Time Machine Server, natively I've been using those successfully. For the services macOS doesn't offer I now have the option of using Home Brew to install those services.
OSX server was nice, but I saw the writing on the wall years ago when they killed xserver and other products. I learned long ago never to put long term faith in their products.
This is sad. I used to have an Apple Certified Technical Coordinator and other official certifications when I first started out working for myself. Mac OS X Server did a lot of neat stuff.<p>Here's an interesting Apple brochure from that time:<p><a href="https://www.apple.com/ca/education/docs/Apple-TrainingCertificationCatalogWeb.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.apple.com/ca/education/docs/Apple-TrainingCertif...</a>
It's disappointing they're discontinuing MDM services as well. I've been using Profile Manager and Apple Configurator to manage personal devices + family devices across my extended family. Looks like I should investigate Jamf Now as a replacement based on this thread.
Seems like the right move to me. On-premise servers are a thing of the past, the cloud is where it’s at.<p>And apparently, Apple feels like there’s no need for them to compete in this space (with 3rd party vendors covering what’s needed).
This was sad to read for some of us old AppleShare IP era types. But yeah, the “Server” app has been flaky and seemed abandoned for ages now.<p>It was nice to see them give a list of alternatives, though.
I know at least one person who put OS X Server 1.2 on a G3 266 laptop, that was supposed to be running 8.6 for the business that cut the paychecks.<p>I've still got the installer in a shoebox somewhere.
I had a parallel timeline expeience reading the title.<p>In my timeline the Server macOS died somewhere around trashcan Macs introduction or maybe even earlier.
133 Comments so far.<p>No mention of Time Machine.<p>No mention of Caching Server<p>No mention of File Server.<p>Three things that happens to be what I thought important apart from MDM, gets no mentions and I assume no use at all? Caching Server used to cache iCloud content as well. Never tried it with iCloud Photos though so I am not sure if it is a backup solution if Apple ever log you out of APPLE ID.<p>This basically ends the dreams of Apple ever selling a Time Capsule with iOS backup and NAS functions.
“Server OS” has been traditionally a scam with hardly a few differences, mainly in config, and purely targeted to milk “enterprise customers”. It’s good to see this fad going away now that these are obsolete anyway with Linux.
I’ve never worked for Apple, but I can only imagine what a disaster their internal IT situation must be given that they use their software nearly exclusively internally but spend almost no effort on enterprise functionality or even basic stability, maintenance and documentation of the limited enterprise features that exist.<p>The big tech company I do work for uses plenty of Apple hardware, but employs the equivalent of a mid-size startup in teams building internal solutions for gaps in the Apple stack.
I'm not going to be at all surprised when Apple sells off their laptop division and kills their few remaining desktops. It's obvious they have no interest in anything outside of the iPhone. Even the iPad is treated like a second class citizen.