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While the improvements to Mac OS X Leopard desktop are said to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary, the enhancements to Apple’s Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Server are impressive and include features ordinarily reserved for large enterprises.
Leopard Server, which is expected to ship Friday, is the networking component of Mac OS X Leopard. It uses a 64-bit Unix kernel
and ships with a new version of Open Directory, which supports Lightweight Directory Access Protocol proxy services, authorization
across domains and RADIUS authentication, among other features.
Leopard Server uses the same kernel as Mac OS X Leopard desktop. Because it is 64-bit enabled it has access to the same amounts
of memory as Intel 64-bit processors.
Leopard can also be integrated with Microsoft’s Active Directory and includes clustering, e-mail and calendaring servers.
The calendar server, which is licensed on a per server basis, has been aptly called Darwin – it lets users share their calendars with other users across the organization. Calendars are stored in a central location and synchronized between user desktops. The Darwin Calendar Server uses the CalDAV protocol, which allows access to calendar events via WebDAV, and thus supports Microsoft Outlook and Leopard’s iCal. It also includes a Podcast Producer, which allows the encoding, publishing and distribution of podcasts, and a Wiki server, which allows users to collaborate with other users and build and edit wiki pages.
For developers, Leopard Servers also supports the Web application framework Ruby of Rails and ships with Mongrel, a lightweight HTTP library and Web server.
The Leopard Server is also expected to ship with a new wizard called the Server Assistant, which simplifies configuration and setup. A new Server Preferences program makes it easy to create users and groups, configure firewalls and monitor utilization.
From a storage standpoint, Leopard supports the Unix/Linux Network File System and clustering with the Apple Xsan array.
Mac OS X Server version 10.5 Leopard is $499 for a 10-client license and $999 for an unlimited client edition. It is included with Apple’s Xserve server at no additional charge.

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Comments (3)
You think? How many errors can one short article have?!?By Anonymous on October 23, 2007, 2:33 pmWow, Network World, you need to pull this article if for nothing other than the sake of your own reputation. This is easily the more poorly written and researched...
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It is no big thing that theBy Anonymous on October 23, 2007, 1:59 pmIt is no big thing that the calendar server is called "Darwin", anyone who has covered OS X products would know that is the name of the open-source core of the Apple...
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RE: Apple to ship Leopard Server this weekBy Anonymous on October 22, 2007, 3:20 pmIf it can seamlessly integrate into Active Directory, Leopard Server has the potential to provide a much needed alternative to Microsoft Exchange Server. For...
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