Apple Previews Mac OS X “Panther” Server

Apple today previewed Mac OS Xversion 10.3 “Panther” Server, the next major release of Apple’saward-winning, UNIX-based server operating system that makes it easy todeploy popular open source solutions for Mac, Windows and Linux clients.Ideal for business and education customers, Panther Server includes powerfulopen source solutions and innovative, easy to use server managementcapabilities. New features in Panther Server include Automatic Setup foreasily setting up multiple servers; Open Directory 2 for hosting scalableLDAP directory and Kerberos authentication services; Samba 3 for providinglogin and home directory support for Windows clients; and the JBossapplication server for running powerful J2EE applications.

“With Panther Server, Apple combines the most popular solutions from theopen source world such as Samba and Apache with Apple’s legendaryease-of-use”, said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president ofWorldwide Product Marketing. “The result is a powerful standards-basedserver operating system capable of a wide variety of solutions fromsupporting Mac, Windows and Linux workgroups to hosting dynamic Web siteswith powerful Web services”.

One of the powerful new capabilities in Panther Server is Automatic Setup,which makes setting up a rack of Xserve systems as easy as setting up asingle server. This groundbreaking new feature allows system administratorsto setup any number of servers from configuration settings stored on adirectory server, external FireWire device, USB storage device or an iPod.

Apple is the first major vendor to ship a server operating system with Samba3, the latest version of the popular open source project that delivershigh-performance, reliable file and print services to Windows clients. NowWindows users can authenticate against Panther Server directly from a PClogin window. Panther Server can also host their Windows home directoriesand support Windows “roaming profiles”. By tightly integrating Samba 3 with Apple’s Open Directory, Panther Server makes it easy for users to access their accounts from either a Mac or a Windows-based PC.

Other open standards-based network services in Panther Server designed formixed-client environments include Open Directory 2, a robust LDAP directoryand Kerberos authentication server based on OpenLDAP, Berkeley DB and MIT’sKerberos KDC that delivers industrial-strength scalability and security. Anall new mail server rebuilt from the ground up using the open source PostfixSMTP and Cyrus IMAP and POP servers provides an open architecture forintegrating with spam and virus filtering solutions, and SSL for secureemail. In addition, a new VPN server built into Panther Server supports MacOS X, Windows or UNIX clients using PPTP and L2TP tunnelling protocols

Panther Server includes an updated release of Apache, the world’s mostpopular Web server along with Apache Tomcat and Apache Axis for creatingpowerful Web services. With the addition of a new JBoss application serverand new application deployment tools, Panther Server is now the easiest wayto develop and deploy J2EE applications.

Pricing & Availability:

Mac OS X version 10.3 Panther Server will be available by the end of thisyear through the Apple Store and Apple Authorised Resellers for a suggested selling price of £339 (inc VAT) for a 10-client edition and £799 (inc VAT) for an unlimited-client edition.

Press Contacts:
Apple UK and Ireland Public Relations
Email: media.uk@apple.com
Phone: +44 (0)20 8218 1440