Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server pricing is good for business

Could someone please explain to me what y'all mean when you say "Not compatible with Exchange"?

Exchange is a mail SERVER, and supports all of the standard mail exchange protocols that every other mail server on the internet supports. An OS X server can send and receive mail from an Exchange server without any problems at all -- thousands of them around the world do it every day.

OS X Server supports IMAP, POP3, and SMTP, all of which are also supported in Outlook. With IMAP, you get "synchronization" of your mail from the server to the client and back. SL Server supports push of mail and IMAP IDLE for initiating mail download from the server to the client.

Also, seriously -- when's the last time that anyone in your company had SECONDS to make a business critical decision via email and would have been screwed if Exchange hadn't pushed that email to them? (If that's actually happened in your company, I posit that you have bigger problems than can be solved by a mail server.)

Awesome. The three companies that use OS X server will be really happy. I'm not even saying it's inferior but the fact is that the vast majority of companies use Linux or Windows. The fact that OS X server isn't Exchange compatible is no doubt part of the reason why.

Steve,

For 10-client Leopard Server customers, the new pricing is a disaster:

There is no 10-client upgrade--you have to pay full price.

If I needed >10 clients, I'd have bought an unlimited license in the first place. Unlimited clients have ZERO value for me.

So why exactly does Apple think it's OK to hose me with a $500 "upgrade" for my $500 Leopard Server 10-client license?

Adam

Oh here we go again... Microsoft sucks... Mac OS X sucks.. Blackberrys are the best.. NO Iphones are the best....You suck.. no YOU SUCK! Why can't we just come to the conclusion not every product is good for everyone? Mac OS Server works beautifully for my 19 member company - and we have all the same requirements of big companies. And guess what? It cost me $499 a machine and we can expand all we want. We were a M$ shop but the money it cost to maintain windows servers and exhange CALs was prohibitive. We couldn't afford it anymore. Mac OS X Server was a godsend for us. Will it be for you? Maybe - maybe not. Accept the fact it works for a lot of us and if it doesn't for you? Oh well. Now let's get down to the facts and give us a review of how this product works in the field.

Thanks for the review of 10.6 server's price.

Yeah...

Now how about a review of 10.6 server.

The new AddressBook server for contact sync on a network (something which as yet on any platform excluding dedicated databases work well; exchange, sorry buds, that's just woeful and causes terrible fragmentation of company contacts and user confusion); improved mobile account management, inclusion of iPhone as a managed client for contact, mail and calendaring. Push from the mail server (and does it work well yet).

Some would like to actually know about this stuff, meaningful stuff...

And while you are reviewing the price?!?! how about some kind of comment at LEAST on the current lack of the 10 CAL version, so what exactly are small businesses running on a mac mini going to do now, upgrade to unlimited to service their 3 computers and 3 phones.

I don't know why anyone would use a MS server or a Mac OS X Server.

Linux or FreeBSD servers are very robust and reliable. Most websites on the Internet are either using Linux or FreeBSD. Best of all the software licensing cost is $0.

actually, we rely on it every day. it's been great...saved our butts on more than one occasion.

Just to clarify I hate exchange! However if you are going to use it, you might as well use the hosted version as you avoid having to maintain it. Also Google Apps is $50 per user per year.

Why don't you save your clients a ton of money and utilize a hosted exchange solution provided directly from Microsoft? For $10/month per user your get the full communications suite without all of the hassle.

Who cares it's not Exchange compatible? Exchange is a POS on so many levels it's not funny. From the tie/lock to AD, the horrid "all your mail is a huge database", to the nightmare admin I fail to see why people think Exchange is good. It is not.

If you look at the tech specs for Snow Leopard server, it's got them all - push mail, calendars, iCal server. And iCal server is just calDAV so you need a client that supports that. Sadly the other POS from MS called Outlook doesn't support CalDAV (wonder why) but there are connectors available.

In short, Skip the POS Exchange and save your company lots of $$ by using Snow Leopard server. :)