Nice review of OS X Server 10.3
There’s a great review of Panther Server over at AFP548. It looks like the changes from 10.2 to 10.3 are much more significant in the server release of OS X than the client release. (For example, Apple finally wised up and ditched their terrible mail server, replacing it with Postfix and Cyrus.)
I bought OS X Server 10.1 but never upgraded to 10.2. Server’s administration tools were so weak that I had to do everything from the command line anyway, and there was much more information available about hacking the client version on the web. (Server 10.1’s documentation was really awful.) I ended up running plain old OS X 10.2 as a server OS. It worked great up (until my problems with 10.2.8, anyway.)
Since I’d need to buy a new computer in addition to dropping $500 for the software, it’s unlikely I’m going to be switching any time soon. But I’m glad Apple has directed some attention on this product. It needed it.
Splefty goes down
Apple’s 10.2.8 update really did a number on my server. I reinstalled OS X from CDs today, then updated to 10.2.8 again with the combo updater, then installed Quicktime 6.4. I experienced the same loss of video problem followed by a hang. I figured that perhaps Quicktime was to blame because the first hang occurred while installing Quicktime. So I installed again, this time skipping any Quicktime updates. Same problem; loss of video and a hung (hanged?) computer.
In the end I reinstalled OS X a third time and upgraded it only to 10.2.6. (Was there a 10.2.7? I thought so but I can’t find any evidence of it on Apple’s site.) I’ll probably keep this machine at 10.2.6 for the rest of time.
Bad Apple
It looks like something dreadful has happened to my server since upgrading it to Mac OS X 10.2.8. Some change Apple implemented made the video and mouse stop working after running for a couple of hours. If you can read this, the server itself is still cooking along (it serves these web pages) but I can’t access it from the console.
This machine has been operating flawlessly for a couple of years under various flavors of OS X. It’s ironic that the 10.2.8 update wrecked its excellent track record since 10.2.8 is probably the last OS update Apple will release for this machine—Beige G3 Power Macs are not supported under 10.3.
Since I’m serving my Calhoun for Council web pages off of this server, I am loath to take it off-line to down-rev the OS. I guess I will just live with remote access via ssh for a couple of days until the election is over.