macmini

A Small Server Is Not a Home Server

By on October 20, 2009 in Hardware

macmini thumb A Small Server Is Not a Home Server

Can I hear a “Whoop!” for Boot Camp for Windows Home Server? Anyone?

As usual, the hardware looks great, but if you’re looking for a home server, with the great backup, media streaming and remote access features you get from WHS (or a bunch of cheaper NAS devices) this isn’t your guy.

I’m not sure just how many businesses run an Apple Server, but this is their “Enterprise” class OS banged into a cute slab of brushed aluminium and acrylic.

Note to Apple: Mac Mini + Apple TV + Time Capsule = Planet Awesome. Nothing less. Sort it out.


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About Terry Walsh

Terry Walsh is the founding editor and owner of We Got Served. Since February 2007, the site has provided detailed coverage and analysis of the emerging home server category, and has subsequently grown into a trusted outlet for digital home news and reviews.
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  • Chunk

    Can you imagine an Apple Media Server – you just know it would be a winner. Wonder if we'll see one any time soon?

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/urmaster urmaster

      Sounds like it would be fail judging by apples horrible codec support on all things media. They always try to lock the customer into their preferred codec’s and offer no choice.

    • http://www.intensedebate.com/people/urmaster urmaster

      Sounds like it would be fail judging by apples horrible codec support on all things media, thus far anyway. They always try to lock the customer into their preferred codec’s and offer no choice.

      • http://mattlongman.com Matt Longman

        Before I got my WHS, I was using an old Powermac as a media server, and it worked perfectly.

        eyeconnect from elgato ( http://bit.ly/2SIyna ) streams to UPnP devices, and it is so easy to set up. It supports loads of different file types and codecs (including DivX, XviD, WMV, MOV) and although you can stream an itunes library (music and videos), you can just tell it to stream certain folders.

        WHS is still better, but still can't properly backup macs.

    • http://twitter.com/alastairweller @alastairweller

      I'd echo that. Think of the wireless audio streaming to airport express and linking with Apple TV for video. Plus it wouldn't be a box that had to be hidden in the cupboard.

    • Scoob

      You just know they would tie you into Itunes….. These days Apple are just as anti-competetive as MS ever were.

      Oh the Irony.

  • Ctewsley

    I don’t know how installing Perian is any harder than the klite PAC for windows. It’s just one component added to your quick time folder works on the apple TV as well. For the whole time I was a mac user the only thing that was hard to play reliably was wmv files.

    I agree about WHS being far more open than an Apple solution would mostly be out of the box but is really is impossible to judge products that don’t exist :)

  • ViRGE

    I don't know why anyone would think this is a WHS competitor. WHS's closest competitor from Apple is the Time Capsule. This is meant to be a cheap way for potential business customers to experiment with Snow Leopard Server.

    This is like knocking WinServer 2K8 R2 for not being user-friendly. You're looking at the wrong market.

    • Tom

      Totally agree. Don't get me wrong, I love WHS but if Apple really wanted to make a home server, im sure it would be S**T hot. Personally I don't think Apple wants to be in that market "hope i'm wrong" because I would be first at the store.

  • Cameron

    I thinks its rubbish. I hate Apple Computers and would NEVER consider switching from WHS or any other Microsoft Windows OS

    • Nil

      You hate it because you never try it?