Now is the Time for an OS X Version

[capaho]

This is a suggestion for the people at Plesk since I couldn't find a general feedback form on their website.

Now may be the perfect time to release a Plesk Panel for OS X Server, assuming there are enough of them out there to make it worthwhile. Administrative control of Mountain Lion Server is pathetic. I will likely abandon OS X server and return to Linux when it's time to retire my Mac mini servers.

There are two scenarios that would lead me to change my mind. One is that the server developers at Apple come out of their iOS stupor and restore OS X as a respectable, professional server. The other is that Parallels release an OS X version of Plesk Panel so that those of us who need real servers can manage them at a professional level without having to resort to the command line for even basic settings.

 

[IgorG]

Several years ago we released version of Plesk for MacOS X. But then we stopped production because the costs were much higher than profit from this Plesk version.
Why do you think that release of Plesk for MacOS X will bring much more profit than in past?

 

[capaho]

Several years ago we released version of Plesk for MacOS X. But then we stopped production because the costs were much higher than profit from this Plesk version.
Why do you think that release of Plesk for MacOS X will bring much more profit than in past?

I remember there was a PPC version some years ago but I was leasing Linux servers with Plesk until 2010 when I set up my own Mac mini servers to replace them. I was intending to install Plesk on them but there was no version for Snow Leopard Server, which had a decent Server Admin panel that made it fairly easy to get along without Plesk.

Unfortunately, Apple stripped Server Admin down in Lion Server and has eliminated it altogether in Mountain Lion Server. Apple wants uniformity between the iOS GUI and the OS X GUI, so form has won out over function. Mountain Lion Server is marketed to people who want to believe that managing a server is as easy as managing an iPhone. The server admin tools in ML Server are not suitable for professional use, in my opinion, particularly because there are no client tools, and I also don't want to have to go back to using the command line as the primary way to manage a server.

To be honest, I don't know if it would be more profitable than in the past because I don't know how much of the server market share OS X Server has, but I know there are many OS X Server administrators complaining on the Apple forums about the dumbing down or elimination of the server tools. I just don't know if there are enough of us out here to justify the expense. It may be that Mountain Lion Server is destined for the home server market, and that's not where you're going to make money.

In any case, if OS X Server administration isn't improved by the time I'm ready to retire my Mac mini servers I will move back to Linux servers, in which case I will likely also return to using Plesk.