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> This hardware is really being held back by the operating system at this point. It really is. Even if they themselves won't bring back their old XServe OS var
by stego-tech 2y ago
> This hardware is really being held back by the operating system at this point.
It really is. Even if they themselves won't bring back their old XServe OS variant, I'd really appreciate it if they at least partnered with a Linux or BSD (good callout, ryao) dev to bring a server OS to the hardware stack. The consumer OS, while still better (to my subjective tastes) than Windows, is increasingly hampered by bloat and cruft that make it untenable for production server workloads, at least to my subjective standards.
A server OS that just treats the underlying hardware like a hypervisor would, making the various components attachable or shareable to VMs and Containers on top, would make these things incredibly valuable in smaller datacenters or Edge use cases. Having an on-prem NPU with that much RAM would be a godsend for local AI acceleration among a shared userbase on the LAN.
- ryao 2y agoGiven shared heritage, I would expect to see Apple work with FreeBSD before I would expect Apple to work with Linux.
- stego-tech 2y agoYou are technically correct (the best kind of correct). I’m just a filthy heathen who lumps the BSDs and Linux distros under “Linux” as an incredibly incorrect catchall for casual discourse.
- hedora 2y agoI heard OpenBSD has been working for a while. I’m continually surprised Apple doesn’t just donate something like 0.1% of their software development budget to proton and the asahi projects. It’d give them a big chunk of the gaming and server markets pretty much overnight. I guess they’re too busy adding dark patterns that re-enable siri and apple intelligence instead.
- ryao 2y agoThe server markets want ECC and Apple has largely stopped shipping ECC. I don’t recall seeing any assurances that the ARM Mac Pro had ECC.
- barryrandall 2y agoSure, but FreeBSD also has a Linux compatability layer. For a company that's given up on the server market so many times, making MacOS compatible with _THE_ server OS makes a lot of sense.
- hinkley 2y agoI miss the XServe almost as much as I miss the Airport Extreme.
- stego-tech 2y agoI feel like Apple and Ubiquiti have a missed collaboration opportunity on the latter point, especially with the latter's recent UniFi Express unit. It feels like pairing Ubiquiti's kit with Apple's Homekit could benefit both, by making it easier for Homekit users to create new VLANs specifically for Homekit devices, thereby improving security - with Apple dubbing the term, say, "Secure Device Network" or some marketingspeak to make it easier for average consumers to understand. An AppleTV unit could even act as a limited CloudKey for UniFi devices like Access Points, or UniFi Cameras to connect/integrate as Homekit Cameras. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't use that feature (I prefer self-hosting it all myself), but for folks like my family members, it'd be a killer addition to the lineup that makes my life supporting them much easier.
- Terretta 2y ago> for folks like my family members, it'd be a killer addition HomeKit networking existed in Eero briefly. I put that in a lot of casual Apple homes. Seemed like missed oppty for Apple to let Amazon buy Eero, a more "spiritual successor" to the Airports.
- seec 2y agoUbiquiti was founded by some Apple employees after they closed their Airport division. I sincerely doubt they want to go through the trouble of collaborating with a company that was too greedy to keep investing in their network hardware. Ubiquiti is decently priced, especially for niche hardware, unlike Apple. Fundamentally they diverge on the way to do things...