Vermyndax’s Lair

I suppose I have to set up this video.

We had been waiting a little over 3 hours to get to this point… this… oh glorious point at which we climb the holy escalator to the third floor of Moscone Center West for a chance at getting into the main keynote presentation without falling victim to the overflow room. In the final stages of the line, we had been broken up into two feeds to tackle both escalators. I was on a feed that was moving at a nice clip. As I turned on the camera to record the video, I noticed that the other line was not moving.

If you listen closely, you can hear someone mention that the escalator for the other line stopped working. Watch and you’ll see one geek decide to jump the line. He succeeds mostly because the security folks didn’t see him do it - but he starts a bit of a commotion as the other geeks decide to follow along.

A brief uproar sparked and left at least one geek quite upset. This is what happens when you worship The Man Who Giveth Us Apple.

WWDC 2007 Keynote Cattle Herding.mov

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Greetings again from WWDC 2007.

Those of you who know me know that I’ve made my living thus far as a Windows admin. I’ve always had a particular bent toward messaging technologies and I do have certifications in the Microsoft space to prove that I can architect these solutions.

The project I am working on now has made me take a second and more objective look at Exchange server. For a long time, I’ve heard Microsoft trainers and other folks complain bitterly about Microsoft Exchange. Most of the complaints started around Exchange 2000, when Exchange merged in with Active Directory. The complaints get worse as the enterprise grows. Exchange 2003 has some real issues with clustering and large deployments. I’m hoping many of these issues are resolved in Exchange 2007, but as I’ve not had the chance to dive into that just yet I cannot speak for any improvements.

It may be fitting that my disgruntlement was on the plane with me (sitting beside me, whispering sweet nothings in my ear) on my way to WWDC 2007. I’m not a Mac developer, I’m an IT implementor with dreams of getting back into media production, theatrics, etc. Attending these sessions have interested me greatly and taken my newfound love for the Mac to a whole new level. I can hardly wait to build my own Mac system at home to begin video production.

That being said, let’s look at the messaging space now.

Despite the WWDC sessions being under NDA, I do not feel that anything I say here will breach what has already been released to the public. As most of you know, Leopard server brings with it the ability to cluster the Mail server. You can now also add to that the iCal server, which is brand new in Leopard and considered to be a direct response to Microsoft’s groupware solutions.

Using the power of Mail server, iCal server, Open Directory, Wiki server, FreeRADIUS and other Mac technologies, I now believe it’s completely possible to run an all-Mac IT environment. Couple that with the ability to run Windows applications in three different ways and you have an environment that can literally do it all. I completely fail to see how this would not be attractive to everyone in the business.

Let’s think for a moment about Microsoft’s Small Business Server, which will be used for small businesses employing 10-50 clients on the network in most cases. Let’s take the major components of Xserve running Leopard server and do a direct software and cost comparison.

First, let’s start with software.

Microsoft Exchange Server == Leopard Mail/iCal/Open Directory
Microsoft ISA Server == Leopard proxy services via squid or other proxy components
Microsoft Active Directory == Leopard Open Directory (which can chain auth to other directories)
Microsoft Sharepoint Services == Leopard Wiki Server
Microsoft volume shadow services == Leopard Time Machine

As you can see, there are major components within Microsoft Small Business server that Apple now has an answer.

Combine that with the reliability record of Apple’s hardware and software and you can start to see a winning formula.

Now let’s compare costs.

I’ll put together a Microsoft Small Business Server at Dell’s website. brb while I do that.

Okie, I’m back. What do ya know… Dell is having a MONEY SAVING SPECIAL! Hooray for cheap PC parts.

I tried to piece together two systems with comparable hardware. Here’s what we ended up with on the PC side:

Dell PowerEdge SC1430
Dual-processor, dual-core Xeon 2.0ghz
2gb of RAM (note: the sale says I get a free 1gb upgrade!)
Includes Microsoft Small Business Server Premium (+5 cals)
3 x 80gb SATA II hard drives
1 Broadcom (yuck!) gigabit ethernet adapter
48x CD-ROM drive
No mouse, no monitor
+45 CALs for Small Business Server Premium

Total: $5,147 USD

Now let’s look at the Xserve plus Mac OS X Server:

2x dual-core Xeon processors, 2.0ghz
2gb RAM
3×80gb SATA ADM hard drives
24x DVD/CD-ROM drive
Built-in ATI X1300 video
Dual 650w power supply
Apple Remote Desktop 3 - unlimited license
Applecare premium support for 3 years

Total: $5,344

Note: Every Apple Xserve includes the current version of Mac OS X Server with unlimited clients for free.

Now then, as you can see, two like-configured servers cost pretty much the same for hardware and software with one important exception. You’re limited on the Windows server to 50 clients. With this configuration of an Xserve, you’re not limited at all.

Also, I should point out that Small Business Server has an important restriction that prevents you from growing the business beyond this one server as a domain controller. You can add other servers doing other roles, but you cannot add a second domain controller. Or, if your business grows beyond 50 employees and you need to have domain controller redundancy, you’ll be hard-pressed to take your domain to the next level thanks to this restriction.

With an Apple Xserve, it’s as simple as adding another server when this one gets too overloaded.

It’s clear to me that Apple is making a slow, yet aggressive move into the small business space. One could also easily picture this development standing up to a larger enterprise, as it certainly scales to that large. The feature sets being introduced in Leopard server make this even more compelling. At this point, small businesses might be totally insane to not consider a full Apple infrastructure.

For more information on the iCal server and its features on Leopard, see this URL. I’ve seen these features in action and I can tell you - the notifications and free/busy information are just plain cool. It’s simple, clean and well implemented.

Kudos to Apple. I’m behind you, hoping to see you compete in this space even better.

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Last night I attended the MacBU WWDC 2007 reception. It was quite the party. I met the new GM of MacBU, Craig Eisler. He’s a very energetic fellow. One fo the MacBU devs described him as “kinetic.” That’s probably accurate.

We spoke a little bit about issues with Entourage that plague our mail system, but I turned the conversation to something a little more positive. He was one of the first DirectX developers back in the Windows 95 days. That made him a hero for me. It was great to meet him.

I asked Emma, our guide, if she knew of Nadyne who wrote the Love Letter to Entourage post on Mac Mojo. Indeed she did… and she was present! So the last part of my visit with the MacBU was spent talking with Nadyne. Nadyne is a user experience worker in the MacBU. We discussed Entourage interoperability troubles and she promised that they understood the issue quite well. Here’s to hoping that gets better.

We also discussed that Love Letter to Entourage post and she says she knew what she was in for when she posted it. I’m glad she did, because she was raked over the coals (even by yours truly, a bit). Meeting her in person makes me feel much better though.

Here’s to hoping the MacBU is listening and making it all better.

On tap today: some sessions on Podcast Producer (COOL STUFF!) and Quartz. Leopard rocks, hard. Seriously.

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I’ve heard/read many people project the death of the Mac Mini.

After spending half a week here at WWDC, I’d like to inform you that I don’t believe this to be the case.

Mac Minis have proven to be quite the useful little box here at WWDC. They are set up as cheapo terminals for users, practice stations, whatever you can think of. However, the most prominent use of them (and one that will definitely keep them alive) is using them with Leopard and Podcast Producer.

That’s all I’ll say.

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I am in the process of adding a few more photos of WWDC 2007. In particular, these pictures are of waiting in line for the keynote. I have videos of that too… but… gee, who wants to see a bunch of geeks waiting in line?

I also have video of portions of the keynote (like the John Carmack portion), but I’m not bothering to post it since a good slice of the keynote has been posted and does it much more justice than what I can offer.

Once again, photos are here.

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So today was the keynote and I have to admit - it was a little underwhelming.

Most of the chatter I heard around the show today seemed to share that sentiment. The excitement was pretty good surrounding the newer features - specifically the new Finder, Cover Flow integration, Time Machine and Core Animation. It’s cool stuff. I personally never found the Finder offending enough to need replacing.

The keynote was definitely entertaining - which is good since I waited three hours for a chance to see Steve Jobs in the flesh. Since this is my first real Apple event, I got a true taste of what these things are like starting around 7am. The line stretched around Moscone Center West quite early. We were corralled into the center little by little as a teasing mechanism. As time went on, we found ourselves wound up on the 2nd floor and spiraling throughout the entire complex. Finally, when the doors were opened to the Presidio, where the keynote was to be delivered, the flock began moving. One of the escalators stopped working on one side of the lines. One guy had the bright idea that he was going to jump lines. He did so and what resulted was a crowd following suit until the security folks halted the movement. At least one person quite loudly declared, “This is bullshit man! Our escalator stopped working and we can’t get upstairs!” He was quite upset.

Anything that does that to a grown man has to be good.

Good it was. The opening video of John Hodgeman showing up on all of the HDTV projector screens in Jobs garb was a scream. He declared that he was Steve Jobs and that since Vista had sold “10 to 15 copies or so” he was going to just have to shut Apple down. It really had the crowd laughing.

But as the speech went on, the crowd found themselves waiting for some of the rumored announcements - you know… new iMacs, ZFS, anything meaty we could grab onto. Alas, there was not much announced that was not already shared with the general public. The final stance of 3rd party apps on the iPhone was ultimately a real downer. The iPhone supporting 3rd party apps through AJAX only was enough to put most developers off their food. I didn’t hear one person speaking positive of this issue… it was too little, too late. Ultimately, it was a generally regarded as a “duh.”

One surprise that got me quaking (pun intended) was John Carmack in the flesh. To me, that clearly showed Apple’s new committment to gaming. With the exception of C&C3, I could care less about EA’s new committment to gaming on the Mac. I thought that having John Carmack present to show id software’s belief in Mac gaming was a very direct statement.

I will point out that in the lunchroom of Moscone Center West, there is a LAN-party style gaming lab that is laden with iMacs and Mac Pros for anyone to take a load off and play Quake 4 to their heart’s content. The best that I could tell, this was running Parallels 3.0 with 3D acceleration and Coherence working its magic. I didn’t get a chance to sit and play much, but I am going to try to do so during lunch tomorrow.

All in all, it was an eventful day, but I can understand how some folks are disappointed in the keynote. I did see/hear other exciting Leopard server developments that should make Windows architects salivate quite a bit, but I can’t share that due to NDA. The press releases have already mentioned iCal server’s existence… but the details of it are quite extraordinary. I left the presentation with the feeling that Apple is directly coming after Microsoft.

The release of Safari on Windows is clearly a strategic move - probably a brilliant one. I use and like Safari, but I don’t find myself desiring to use it on Windows. Perhaps I should load it and give it a shot anyway.

All in all, a fun day… back I go to reading professional opinions about the show. But I did want to get out in the community that the backchatter I heard after the keynote was not oozingly positive even among the devoted Mac developer crew. We’ll see how it plays out over time.

Day two tomorrow… whee!

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So we journeyed down the hill from our hotel to Moscone Center West to get a gander of WWDC 2007 and register for the show. Many folks had the same idea - they were streaming in from everywhere with excited looks on their faces. Many of them registered and immediately unpacked their laptops - perhaps to blog about the experience.

The show’s swag featured a fairly elegant WWDC ‘07 laptop bag and t-shirt. The laptop bag posed a bit of a problem for us since we had a toddler and stroller with us, but the wife managed to find a way to get it attached to the stroller to make it easier to carry.

Apple has really taken over Moscone Center West. There are Leopard banners everywhere and it pretty much looks as if they own the place. Heh. Apple pwned Moscone Center West.

I am keeping a Picasa album of all pictures here.

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