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Wardy · Jul 26, 2004, 10:45 AM

Hi all
I'm helping my kids' school update their server but I'm not sure what's the best hardware to recommend - specifically, a Powermac G4 G5 or Xserve

They have about 100 iMacs / eMacs at presnet and around 20 PC's. The iMac's are running mostly OS 9 (some 8 and 7!) and the eMac's are OS X.

One of the main drivers is to be able to file share across the PC's OS 9 and OS X desktops. I expect OS X Server will have no problems with this.

The real crunch is what hardware to buy. I am aware that Xserve comes with OS X Server license, which will save a lot of money. But I'm not sure if they already have a license anyway.

We would like to be able to:

file share
have an intranet
allow application push out
home folder portability

That's pretty well our initial plan. We will no doubt grow and usse more things but we need to get the ball rolling.

Does anyone have any comments about suitable hardware - bearing in mind, of course, that being a school funds are limited

Thanks in advance!

CatOne · Jul 27, 2004, 06:49 PM

Originally posted by Wardy:
Hi all
I'm helping my kids' school update their server but I'm not sure what's the best hardware to recommend - specifically, a Powermac G4 G5 or Xserve

They have about 100 iMacs / eMacs at presnet and around 20 PC's. The iMac's are running mostly OS 9 (some 8 and 7!) and the eMac's are OS X.

One of the main drivers is to be able to file share across the PC's OS 9 and OS X desktops. I expect OS X Server will have no problems with this.

The real crunch is what hardware to buy. I am aware that Xserve comes with OS X Server license, which will save a lot of money. But I'm not sure if they already have a license anyway.

We would like to be able to:
file share

have an intranet

allow application push out

home folder portability

That's pretty well our initial plan. We will no doubt grow and usse more things but we need to get the ball rolling.

Does anyone have any comments about suitable hardware - bearing in mind, of course, that being a school funds are limited

Thanks in advance!

If you want an intranet that's hosted on the server, you'll probably want an Xserve. The Xserve has dual GigE ports, so you can the box as a little firewall as well.