Apple - Design & Publishing - Shutting Down NT: How We Did It

What We Found. We studied the three MacOS-based servers: WebStar, Web Server 4D, and MacTen. None offered a complete web server solution and each of them missed something: either a Perl development environment, true remote administration, or speed. I was feeling forced to buy an Intel-based server to work with Linux, even though it was going to be painful to spend $6000 or more on an Intel-based system. A system that was slower than Apple's and did not appear, from the articles I had read, to have a future of advances in speed equivalent to what Apple had already proven in the G3 series.

I took a leap and got the Mac hardware anyway. My system administrator got his Linux—MKLinux. A new G3 for a little over $3000 ensured a ROI of less than 6 months, based on an initial hosting of less than 24 websites. We now offer electronic commerce solutions in conjunction with a local ISP, as well as database-driven websites. Our primary web server, the G3, has been running nonstop, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for over six months—without error, without fault, without an unintentional restart.

I was
feeling forced to buy an Intel-based server to work with Linux, even
though it was going to be painful to spend $6000

One of our clients called and said, "What did you do to my website?" I said, "What's wrong? It was working just this morning." He quickly replied, "It's faster. A lot faster. The images are POPPING up. This is great." So we installed a second server, also running MKLinux, on an 8500 that was no longer needed as a design station (replaced by a G3). With 128MB RAM and 132MHz processor, it is equivalent to a dual-133MHz processor Dell for installs and compiles. And that's an 8500. The G3 is unbeatable.

And the learning curve to conduct the basic administration in Linux was no greater than learning a new piece of Macintosh software. My System Administrator works from home, a few hours a day at most. At his fingertips exists an unofficial but large, very real-world support group that consists of newsgroups, developer forums, and 14-year-old prodigies. Answers appear in minutes and I am even getting the hang of the command-line interface.

Well, the NT guys are not laughing any more. Linux devotees are drooling. And with the good news about Apple's G3 spreading, even those who swore Apple would be out of business in a matter of months, are scratching their heads and considering a G3 with MKLinux.