Tiger server to arrive April 29

Written by Philip Roy | 13 April 2005
Posted in Apple

Apple today announced that Mac OS X Server version 10.4 "Tiger" will be available on Friday, April 29, at the same time as the Mac OS X version 10.4 "Tiger" desktop version. The next major release of Apple's award-winning, UNIX-based server operating system, Tiger Server integrates over 100 leading open source projects and standards-based software applications with easy-to-use management tools that make it easy to deploy for Mac, Windows and Linux clients.

Tiger Server has over 200 new features including native support for 64-bit applications, ideal for high performance computing; iChat Server to deploy secure instant messaging within an organisation; Weblog Server that makes it simple to publish and share weblogs (blogs); and Xgrid to make it easy to turn a group of Macs into a virtual supercomputer.

"Tiger Server continues Apple's blazing pace of innovation and is the best release of Mac OS X Server yet," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "With no client access fees and over 100 open source projects combined with Apple's legendary ease of use, Tiger Server is the clear choice for all Mac and PC workgroups and an ideal alternative to Windows and Linux servers."

Tiger Server brings the power of 64-bit computing to mainstream servers. For the first time, applications can unleash 64-bit performance when accessing massive amounts of memory through 64-bit addressing and also undertake high precision math calculations with 64-bit optimised math libraries, at the same time as running 32-bit applications. Combined with Apple's Power Mac G5 or Xserve G5, Tiger Server offers an affordable, easy-to-manage solution for the most demanding high performance scientific, technical and creative computing needs.  

Tiger Server also includes a brand new iChat Server designed for organisations that need to keep internal communication private. iChat Server integrates within an organisation's existing directory services, uses SSL/TSL encryption to ensure privacy, works with Apple's popular iChat conferencing software in Tiger and is compatible with open source Jabber clients available on Windows, Linux and popular PDAs.

Weblog Server is fully compatible with Safari in Tiger and makes it easy for non-technical individuals to publish and syndicate content using their existing web browsers. It supports calendar-based navigation, user and group blogs and HTML, RSS, RSS2, RDF or ATOM protocols. Weblog Server can integrate with Open Directory, LDAP and access control lists for authentication and comes with several Apple-designed blog themes.

Tiger is the first operating system to include a built-in distributed computing architecture for both the desktop and server versions. Both Tiger and Tiger Server include Xgrid, Apple's easy-to-use solution for distributed computing. Xgrid makes it easy to turn an ad hoc group of Macs into a virtual supercomputer by streamlining the process of assembling nodes, submitting jobs, and retrieving results. With Xgrid, scientists, animators and digital content creators can easily run a single job across multiple computers at once, dramatically improving performance and responsiveness.

 Other new features in Tiger Server include:

• Support for Access Control Lists and native file permissions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 Active Directory environments that provide a more flexible permissions model to give administrators better control over files, folders and network services in mixed platform environments;
• Software Update Server that saves on network costs and avoids bandwidth bottlenecks by letting system administrators host their own proxy/cache server to control the availability of Apple's software updates;
• Adaptive Junk Mail Filtering with virus detection and quarantine helps protect all clients connected to the mail server from viruses and unwanted junk email;
• Gateway Setup Assistant to make it easier for small business and home office users to set up complex network services, including DHCP, NAT, DNS, port routing, firewall and VPN services; and
• Ethernet Link Aggregation and Network Interface Failover that support the IEEE 802.3ad standard to increase potential I/O performance and eliminate single points of failure by allowing multiple network interfaces to appear as a single interface.

Pricing & Availability

Mac OS X Server version 10.4 "Tiger" will be available on April through Apple Authorised Resellers for a suggested retail price of $835 (incl GST) for a 10-client edition and $1,795 (incl GST) for an unlimited-client edition. Tiger Server can be pre-ordered beginning today and current subscribers to the Apple Maintenance Program will receive Tiger Server as part of their service agreement. Volume and maintenance pricing is available on request. The standard Mac OS Up-To-Date upgrade package is available to all customers who purchase a new Xserve G5 system from an Apple Authorised Reseller on or after April 12 for a shipping and handling fee of $14.95 (Aust). Tiger Server is included with Apple's powerful Xserve G5 rack-mount server hardware and can run on any Macintosh computer with a PowerPC G5, G4, or G3 processor, a minimum 256MB RAM; built-in FireWire and at least 4GB of available disk space.

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