Apple Thoughts - News & Reviews on all things Apple

"As Liam argued yesterday, Apple is aiming for the consumer market these days, which is why it should come as no surprise that it would discontinue its Xserve enterprise server. The rack-mountable Xserve will no longer be available for purchase as of Jan. 31, and Apple has no plans to produce a new model in the future."

But Apple is still keeping some options open, such as with the addition of this Mac Pro with server configuration. Granted, it would be a little hard to rack mount a Mac Pro, but you could modify a rack to fit a Mac Mini (which Apple is also suggesting as an alternative for the Xserve). It appears Apple is going to focus on consumer market rather than enterprise, what are your thoughts? Good move, bad move?

"CUPERTINO, California-April 7, 2009-Apple® today announced an updated Xserve® that delivers up to twice the performance of the previous system.* Using Intel "Nehalem" Xeon processors and a next generation system architecture, the 1U rack-optimized Xserve delivers up to an 89 percent improvement in performance per watt.** Xserve is available with up to two 2.93 GHz Intel Xeon processors and industry-leading storage options that include a low-power solid state drive (SSD) and up to 3TB of internal storage. Starting at $2,999, Xserve includes an unlimited client license for Mac OS® X Server version 10.5 Leopard®."

Yep, even the Xserves get updated once in awhile. I've never actually seen one in use anywhere, but I hear they're pretty nice. I mean, really, you can't expect your humble Executive Editor to know every Apple product back to front, right? Don't expect a review either; Apple doesn't like giving review units to us smaller guys and I ain't layin' out $2,999 for one (although if I had that kind of bread, I'd consider it!).

In all reality, though, the specs are pretty impressive and if you can't bear the thought of letting a Unix / Linux / Winders server onto your network, here's your option!

"Independent Mac repair shops all over the world are rejoicing this week, after Apple's announcement the company will phase out repair support for certain G4 machines, xserve products and other "vintage" and "obsolete" gear."

Products are labeled "vintage" after being discontinued more than 5 and less than 7 years, and "obsolete" more than 7 years after being discontinued. You can check the list over at Apple and see if you have any of these products. Have no fear you PowerBook G4 owners, you can still get parts for them! Oh, you own an Apple StyleWriter too? So sorry.