Mac OS X Home Server
Well MacWorld is just around the corner and the Apple silly season is in full swing where commentators from around the web peek into their crystal balls and predict what they believe Apple will announce. In most cases the focus is on hardware annoucements, specifically an Intel based Mac Mini and the with the number of predictions out there the law of averages says someone will get it right and come 10th Jan they will be able to claim 'I told you so'.
Having owned many Macs and with two currently running on my home network I'm fairly sure I'll buy another in the not-to-distant future. If an Intel Mac Mini was announced in Jan I'd almost certainly buy one to use as form of home server to store my iTunes library; as a remote document store; as a controller for my home automation network; and as a host for my subversion repository.
The downside to this is that Mac OS X (client) still doesn't really make it easy to run a home network where there are common logins for all users, central repositories etc. The alternative is Mac OS X Server but this is not aimed at the home market and is more than I need.
What I hope Apple recognises is the move from a single Mac to a multi-Mac environment in the home and the changes in the OS this demands. Ideally this would mean an OS environment that included such things as:
- Common logins across the network
- Central application management (and clear policies around use on multiple machines)
- Central file stores
- iTunes repositories that don't require multiple copies of the same CD for each user
- Centrally controlled resources e.g. internet address white/blacklists for younger users (likewise with email addresses and iChat users). Mac OS X already includes support for this sort of thing but only on a computer by computer basis
I'm aware that there are workarounds for each of the things that I've outlined such as LDAP databases, network storage devices etc but none of this is easy to do and maintain. This is what I'd like to see come out of Mac World San Francisco bundled with a small quiet/silent Mac Mini Server. One can only hope though check back on 11th Jan to see whether there's an 'I told you so' here.