Steve Jobs says hardly anyone was buying the Xserve

While corporate, scientific, entertainment industry, and university buyers of the soon-to-be-dead Xserve are bemoaning the loss of the rack-mounted powerhouse, Steve Jobs has reportedly told a French Xserve customer "hardly anyone was buying them."

A reader of the French MacGeneration website sent Jobs an email complaining about the pending end-of-life of the Xserve and wondering why Apple hasn't considered allowing virtualization of Mac OS X Server under VMWare or Microsoft's HyperV, or license the Xserve technology to another vendor. Jobs replied in his usual terse manner.

Comments on my Friday post about Xserve show that there is widespread dissatisfaction with Apple's decision in the server administration community. AFP548 user mcal27 has even started a petition in an attempt to persuade Apple to change its mind about the decision. Unfortunately, such petitions have a dismal record of success.

One of our commenters speculated that Apple might be considering a new Mac blade server, which is not entirely out of the question. Apple loves minimalist design, and blade servers are the epitomy of minimalism -- a complete server on a board which slides into a rack-mounted chassis. A lot of blades can be packed into a standard 42U equipment rack, in much higher density and lower cost than the Xserve. However, it's odd that Apple didn't make an announcement of a new server technology prior to dropping the axe on the Xserve.

[via Electronista]



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