Tuesday, November 5, 2002 |
16:22 - PC Mag Gushes over the XServe
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,575556,00.asp
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Here's something you don't see every day: a PC Magazine article about an Apple product that has nary a true negative point in it.
About the worst it gets is:
Configuring the server, user accounts, and services was a breeze. In fact, service configuration in Mac OS X 10.2 Server is so easy that it actually confused us on some points. For instance, we had trouble enabling file services for Windows. But after looking for 20 minutes, we found the single Windows File Sharing button right in front of our face, hiding in plain sight. Too easy.
Yep. You know, I've been leery for a while now of the XServe-- we haven't heard very much about its success in the marketplace since its introduction, like for instance whether Apple's in fact selling any of them. (This is, after all, a huge experiment on their part, and a tremendous gamble on the machine's ability to overcome widespread mistrust of the Apple name in enterprise-class IT environments in order to make inroads against the likes of Dell and Sun.) But if the comments at the bottom of the article are any indication, there are at least some of these things selling, and those doing the buying are finding their purchases to be well worth it.
I just installed an X-Serve with the configuration tested and conclude it's everything you mentioned and more. Also available are net boot and net imaging. The server pages me if there are any problems with heat, drives or processors (no calls so far!) The dual gigabit ports plugged into my Cisco gear simply works as billed, fast! I set up a video stream and connected a lab of 25 computers to the stream and it played wonderfully. Set up is simple, performance is reliable and trouble free. We have Windows XP, Mac OS-9 and OS-X clients connecting and it's just been rock solid. Money very well spent!
It doesn't get much more five-star than that.
One thing I have to wonder, though: is the author of this article a secret Hewlett-Packard shill?
...Each drive is controlled by its own 100MB master interface to maximize the data througHPut, leaving even Ultra 160 SCSI drives in the dust...
Pretty strange way to encode secret subliminal marketing messages, if you ask me.
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