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Gone.

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    OS-X Server? Wow, this must be of interest to like 0.0001% of IT professionals...

    1. David Kelly 2

      $1000 buys a Mac Mini Server which is the least labor server solution avail. It works out of the box. I retired a couple of FreeBSD systems in favor of Mac Mini Servers. Was educational to configure and manage the FreeBSD systems but MacOS Server uses much the same core tools with much less hassle.

      1. Mage Silver badge

        $1000 buys a Mac Mini Server

        A mere Fruit fan toy.

        Apple stopped making real servers some time ago.

        I suppose you can put appropriate software on a netbook, Apple TV or Raspberry Pi and call it a "Server".

        The "Mac Mini Server" is a small overpriced appliance.

    2. Lee D Silver badge

      Or, say, those schools with thousands of iPads nowadays that need some kind of management.

      Sorry, I'm not an Apple fan (never owned an Apple product in my life, personally, but have managed a few). But if you're going to manage Apple-based tablets, an Apple-based server is the best idea. Same as if you're going to manage a thousand Windows machines - you don't want to be faffing about trying to do it via Samba unless you really have to (and, no, not particularly a Microsoft fan either... again, never bought an MS product in my life but have managed many thousands of them). I'm a Linux guy, personally.

      The setup I inherited from my predecessor is Apple MDM controlling iPads with a Windows network, both tied together nicely. And Cisco Meraki switches/wireless takes off a lot of MDM burden too.

      Given the choice, I'd throw them all in the bin personally (I deployed Google Apps For Education-managed Android tablets in my previous school, they worked wonderfully), but my job involves managing them, and the schools love iPads for the apps and AirPlay streaming video to their Windows-based interactive whiteboards, if nothing else. As such, I'm quite happy to have an Apple product managing other Apple products rather than some improvised half-baked scheme that tries to compensate.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "Or, say, those schools with thousands of iPads nowadays that need some kind of management."

        Hardly any schools waste £600+ on iPads. I think the percentage above was probably too high.

        1. Mage Silver badge

          Hardly any schools waste £600+ on iPads?

          Really?

          Actually I'm suspicious of iPads or Android Tablets or Kindles for General Educational use. The Teachers aren't clued up enough.

          Has there been a trial not funded by a Computer supplier that properly proves any claimed advantage other than Anecdotal Evidence?

          Why should Schools fund a single "single source" & "proprietary solution" gadget?

        2. Lee D Silver badge

          I've been working in IT for schools exclusively for the last 15 years.

          I've not been in a school that, now, does not have iPads or some form of tablets.

          The educational value - that's a different question which I'm not able to answer without seeming like I "know better" than scores of qualified teachers (of which I'm not one). But then, on that basis, you can also include interactive whiteboards, vast portions of the curriculum, banks of laptops and netbooks, a multitude of online resources, the whole "ICT" curriculum (notice the C, that's a giveaway as to the content of the course, vs just IT - the C stands for Communication officially, but unofficially it stands for "computing", i.e. how to use Word and click on files), the existence of teaching assistants and all kinds of things before you worry about things like iPads/tablets that are visibly used almost every day.

          Sure, there aren't many schools outside the independent sector that allocate iPads in the ratio of per child, but there are very, very, very few schools without at least a bank or two of them. And I've worked in several independent schools that are, literally, putting them on the uniform list - i.e. the child is required to have them with them in order to attend school, whether supplied by the school or by the child's parents. The state secondary sector is swarming with iPads, Learnpads, Android tablets, Windows Surface tablets, you name it. The last Academy I worked in, in a notoriously poor borough of London, had two banks of iPads, one of netbooks, and about 8 IT suites (two of them Mac). It was run, for many years, by one IT guy who basically detested iPads. Try doing that without proper management.

          Fad, yes, possibly. But so were in-class voting systems, electronic microscopes, interactive whiteboards, netbooks, VLE's, and lots of others. All of them still sell, all of them get into schools, and some of them become virtually compulsory (I've yet to witness a class teacher interview in the last ten years that did NOT include a section in front of an interactive whiteboard with the teacher supplying the content in electronic format - plays merry hell for IT unless they use the de facto standard SmartBoard software. The new one is to bring your own iPad and AirPlay your screen to the interactive whiteboard).

          Honestly, before you stab a guess, go find your kid's school's IT guy and ask them. Or just visit their website. And if you don't have kids, go attend BETT next time it's on at Excel, and see what's being sold to schools - if you get 10 feet through the door without seeing an iPad, I'll be impressed.

          Cost? A tiny primary school in London would happily spend £20-30k on a bank of laptops 10 years ago. You think they care about doing so with iPads if they can tell parents (who are MAD KEEN on hearing "iPad" when it comes to their children's education) about it?

          You can question it all you like, just ask someone who works in IT in schools. The tablet-to-pupil ratio is fast becoming greater than the PC-to-pupil ratio, and in at least half the schools I've ever worked (especially the ones that have become Academies) they actually are already there. That's one of the reasons that the VLE's are selling so well, because they are generally platform-independent and the kids can access them on PC's or iPads, from home or in-school.

          I suggest if you want to know the truth, you go look into actual, real schools. My daughter's nursery, in the back end of nowhere in Cornwall, has iPads for her use. She knew how to use them because she had a Nexus at age 4. I'm a very, very traditionalist parent, I'd thrown all electronics out if I actually ran a school (and now, please consider my career as stated above) except in IT-specific lessons, but I won't hinder my daughter by pretending schools don't have this kit and won't be using it with her anyway - this is what she's going to grow up with, pervasive as hell.

          I'll be shocked if you can find me a state-school nursery classroom that does not have an interactive whiteboard, at least one PC (probably more in nursery as they usually have standalone for keyboard-bashing by the kids), site-wide wireless, and access to a bookable class-bank of tablets (of one brand or another).

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            "I've not been in a school that, now, does not have iPads or some form of tablets."

            Every school in my area (South London / Kent) uses only laptops. An sensible decision when you consider the far more limited capabilities of tablet focused OSs. And until very recently schools were unable to teach commercially essential skills like Microsoft Office on a non Windows based tablet.

            1. jubtastic1

              @ laptop AC

              I live in South London, wife is a teacher, you're very wrong.

  2. David Kelly 2

    Once Upon A Time the mobile device management tool was the only way to do things such as define VPN on an iOS device. Thats the last time I played with it.

  3. Kaffy

    I thought Ethics was a place in East Anglia

    Scott has the job title of Principle Technologist - Apple. Are we all being judged?

  4. Mage Silver badge

    Profiles on an iThing

    Surely such local 3rd party control is anathema to an iThing owner. Only Apple is holy enough to interfere.

  5. ldjfaskjla

    but, does it work now?

    does it actually work now? I went to an apple sanctioned two day 'workshop' on how to configure os x server for device deployment at an apple campus last year. after two day of listening to the lectures and configuring the ipads/ipods/server, it didn't work. The apple 'experts' in charge of the workshop just kinda' brushed over the failure and gave us a few trinkets and said "and that's how easy it is!" amusing.

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