A Mac OS X Overview

Server and Client

At the 1999 Worldwide Developers Conference, Steve Jobs, Apple's interim CEO, and Avie Tevanian, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering, gave developers an overview of Apple's software "roadmap," including the first in-depth look at Mac OS X, Apple's next-generation operating system.

First out of the gate was Mac OS X Server, an operating system largely based on the technology Apple acquired from NeXT Inc. in 1996. This OS provides the security and power typical of Unix systems, with a few unfortunate wrinkles. Perhaps most notably, sendmail relayed spam be default in early releases. And, as GNU advocates are so fond of pointing out, the kernel is not recompileable, nor is the code "open source" in the strictest sense of the term. There's no ports collection and, of course, no access to some source code for parts of the OS.

Apple subsequently announced an end user-oriented version of Mac OS X client, featuring an innovative -- and controversial -- user interface dubbed "Aqua."  Then, in Feb. 2001, the company quietly unveiled Mac OS Server 2.0, also sporting the stylish Aqua interface. We'll look at some of the new capabilities of this release, later in this section. First, let's look at the history behind these products.

At the 1999 WWDC, Steve Jobs demoed ongoing development efforts for the client release of Mac OS X ("ten"), including integral support for Adobe's portable document format (PDF), a new PDF-and-LDAP-savvy Mail client, and a new/old Finder, which is strongly reminiscent of the NeXT file browser. The new graphics imaging engine, known as "Quartz," Jobs said, will make the Mac OS the first mass-market operating system to include compositing features pioneered at Pixar (Jobs' other company) fifteen years ago. In a demo, Apple showed the new graphics engine performing real-time soft shadows behind text typed on top of a TIFF image, with full anti-aliasing. Later, an imported PDF graphic was shown being rotated, resized and made partially transparent, all in real time. Very cool, although we recall seeing similar features in a "NeXT Dimension" demonstration in the early 1990s. It's also safe to expect a few complaints about the large size of email files with embedded PDF enclosures, at least until broadband Internet access is ubiquitous.

Although the company said its development strategy hadn't changed since 1998's WWDC, a number of the Apple terms for components in the new OS underwent name changes. Gone is the confusing "Blue Box" terminology that signified "classic Mac OS compatibility mode" in the Mach/BSD Unix-based OS X. Now, Apple calls it "Classic." Another Apple technology given a new spin is the Mac OS X application interface model formerly known as "Yellow Box," but now referred to as "Cocoa." (Cocoa is apparently unrelated to "Cocoa," an Apple-developed programming language for children, quietly dropped during the era just after former CEO Gil Amelio was given the big shoe.)

Product: MacOS X Server (See below for info on Mac OS X with "Aqua")

From: Apple
Release date: April, 1999 (updated several time4s since then, improving support for recently released Macs)
Price: US$499 (10 client edition). An Unlimited-Client Edition, uniquely suited for classroom labs, creative professionals and medium-to-large work groups with high volume file sharing activity, carries a suggested retail price of US$999.

Pros: For many Websites, OS X Server is most attractive as a platform for the delivery of QuickTime Streaming services. Under Mac OS X, this requires a minimum of 256 MB of RAM, but otherwise adds no additional cost -- a welcome change from the high cost of a full-fledged Real Networks server.

Cons: Sendmail relayed spam out of the box in v1.0. Mac OS X Server did not enjoy regular updates or good support from Apple in the months following its Mar. 1999 debut. For example, as recently as Oct. 21, 2000, Mac OS X Server was still completely incompatible with all G4 machines. Apple stopped selling OS X Server on The Apple Store in July, 2000, apparently due to incompatibility with G4 machines; Mac OS X Server 1.2v3, released on Oct. 23, 2000 is compatible with select Power Mac G4, Macintosh Server G4, Power Macintosh G3 and Macintosh Server G3 configurations, requiring a minimum of 64MB of RAM and a 1GB hard disk. Mac OS X Server 1.2v3 is not compatible with Power Mac G4 or Macintosh Server G4 models that ship with the dual-channel Ultra160 SCSI card. Moreover, this release fixes several rather serious kernel level flaws which affected the stability and usability of the 1.0.x release, as noted in a Dec. 6 report on Macintouch.com. There is no cost-reduced migration path from OS X Server 10.0 to the 10.2 Jaguar version of OS X Server

Summary: OS X Server is an industrial-strength server based on NeXTstep underpinnings. Mac OS X Server 1.0 includes WebObjects, a QuickTime streaming server and a suite of Unix developers tools.

Overview

Apple on March 16th, 1999 introduced Mac OS X Server. The long-awaited product, priced lower at US$499 than formerly announced, is based partially on code from the OpenStep OS Apple acquired in 1996. Notable features of the product include the popular "Apache" webserver and a so-called "NetBoot" feature that allows a network of Macs to be booted and configured from a single server, making, says Apple, network administration as easy as running a single Mac. Also included is a feature Apple characterizes as a preview version of a streaming QuickTime video server (requiring a minimum of 256MB of RAM!) and WebObjects 4.01, Apple's market-leading application server platform for development and deployment of high-performance, large-scale Internet and intranet applications. The product's "unlimited client" price-point of US$999 suggests that Apple is serious about taking marketshare from Microsoft, which has a per-user license policy for its Windows NT operating system.

In fact, Apple says its systems configured with the new OS provide the fastest Apache Web server platform for under $5,000 US, outperforming Linux, Solaris and Windows NT Server. Mac OS X Server is, says Apple, also faster than Windows NT Server in high bandwidth file throughput tests. Apple VP of marketing Phil Schiller set up and demonstrated a working web server in about 10 minutes during the launch event. A mail server is not included but is reportedly "in the pipeline."

The OS can, via an included "Classic" environment, run most Mac applications designed for Mac OS 9. Previous versions of Mac OS are not supported, says Apple. Windows-compatible networking protocols were not supported in the 1.0 release, but were added for the Jaguar edition.