14 DAY TRIAL // A person concerned about Apple’s move to drop Xserve development got a typically terse email reply from the Apple CEO, learning that the 1U rackmount line of server computers wasn’t selling all that well.
Apple recently confirmed plans to discontinue the Xserve, noting that customers looking to upgrade, replace, or supplement existing Xserve systems with new Apple hardware have two server solutions to choose from - new Mac Pro configuration appropriately called Mac Pro Server, and the relatively new Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server.
On its web site, Apple revealed last week that “Xserve will no longer be available after January 31, but we’ll continue to fully support it.”
The person in question, a reader of French web site MacGeneration, reportedly described his situation as follows:
Hello,
You don’t like PRO Market. OK.
A lot of worker as us, live with Apple Pro Apps, OS X Pro Apps, OS X infrastructure (XServe, Xsan, RIP XServe RAID…..)
The end of the XServe is a knight in our back… why not sending this activity to Filemaker or making an other company: “Apple Pro Consumer” or “Apple Pro”? or licensing Mac OS X Server to VMWare or MSFT HyperV for example? or licensing XServe as you did with Promise fir XServe RAID?
We need PRO Servers 1 U.
Thanks for what you do, but please… not like this…
Best regards.
Sorry for my bad language (I am french)
According to a screenshot posted by the French web site, Steve Jobs’ reply was:
Hardly anyone was buying them.
Sent from my iPhone
According to Apple Mac Pro systems deliver pretty much the same, if not more performance and expandability than the more expensive Xserve. Mac Pros also offer an excellent server solution “for customers looking for the highest levels of performance, storage, and expandability,” according to the makers.
Preloaded with Mac OS X Server, the tower form factor can easily be deployed in an office environment, on or under a desk, as well as in data center environments on a shelf in a rack with two units per 12U, Apple claims.