Mac OS X Lion Server may yet be included in the price

Stephen Withers
Monday, 06 June 2011 09:58

Opinion and Analysis

One of the attractive aspects of Mac OS X Lion was that the server and desktop editions were to be rolled into one. Despite assertions to the contrary by some observers, this could still be the case.

Blogging (or at least publishing in the blog format) seems to encourage people to jump to negative conclusions. I've probably fallen into the trap from time to time.

The latest brouhaha stems from the discovery of a help item in a prerelease version of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.

Apple's web page describing Lion says "Lion Server is now part of Mac OS X Lion." Traditionally, Apple has sold two editions of its operating system: desktop and server.

But the Help item in question reads (in part) "If this Mac isn't a server, you can make it one by installing the Server app.

"1. Buy the Server app from the Mac App Store."

This has led some people to conclude that it will cost extra to get the Server functionality. That's not completely unreasonable, given the use of the word 'buy'.

But there's another way of looking at it, so please read on.