Macs make terrible servers. I’ve had to manage various on-premises Mac servers for the last 15-20 years and every year Apple breaks something extremely basic and obvious with no reasonable workaround. Especially these days with locking down all the administrative functions such that only a local admin user (with a SecureToken!) clicking a button in the GUI with a physically attached mouse/keyboard can enable them.

▲

leakycap 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

I'd rather know how a mac server is to run today than how it was over the last 15-20 years. Seems things are getting better now, especially with this ssh news.

Security is rarely convenient. Since the early OS X days, Apple seems to be willing to do things the more secure way even if it's a bit of a hassle. Seems to be paying off for them.

▲

trollbridge 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

It’s a lot harder than it used to be. You basically need to ensure you have a remote KVM, or else have access to smart hands every few months to press a button.

	▲	leakycap 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		I don't agree that it is harder than it used to be, unless you specifically mean there are a few more dialogs to hop through during install and initial setup which is annoying on recent versions. But you do this once, just like Windows UAP. Apple sells remote management software* if you don't want to buy your own KVM solution, it's $79.99 but given that there are no per-user limits and it has been continually updated for ~20 years, I'd say it's often overlooked in discussions of remotely managing Macs. If you want a free solution, Tahoe w/ ssh FileVault unlock makes using a Mac as a server more useful than ever with a non-Apple VNC product of your choice. * Mac App Store link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/apple-remote-desktop/id4099073...

▲

mrtesthah 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

the point is that the “security” changes apple has been making are not broadly beneficial to the server use case and seem designed for single-user systems with no consideration for remote management/access.

This is the same reason why Apple has lost the education market to Chromebooks.

▲

MangoToupe 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Why not just install linux on them? Macs don't require macos. Hardware ≠ software.