macOS Server for PC and Mac

Software Reviews and Criticism

• By IT Pro Dude

  Not Recommended For Live Business Use

  On the surface this seems to be a great buy. It provides a GUI front-end to many of the open source underpinnings already found on your Windows OS. However, the problems I have experienced over the last 4 years is that the updates sometimes break functionality, take away features, or make previous implementations unfeasible. This has led to catastrophies for our organization. Examples in the past, that have required Microsoft enterprise support have been: disruption of email for days, email logs no longer available (intentionally by Development), firewall troubleshooting because an update broke connectivity, anti-virus & junkmail filters failing to update, etc. If you base your services offered by this product, beware, because it seems as if Microsoft may not do much vetting in business environments - or they have a hard time ensuring all the open source components are compatible with their OS. Because the features change so much, documentation is often sketchy & outdated. These are big problems that can sometimes requires hours, or even days of troubleshooting & re-configuration, to get this app working after a patch. Please put that troubleshooting time into your cost analysis when you buy a $20 server.

  
  
• By dan619

  Horrible. Worst Microsoft product ever.

  Don’t do it. It breaks file sharing. It won’t work properly and there is no fix because it will break itself again. ACLs don’t work. File locking doesn’t work. Permissions don’t inherit properly and are randomly and incorrectly followed. You either get locked out when you shouldn’t get locked out, or if you’re “lucky” enough to get to your files, they get corrupted if there are other users on the network. Databases? Damaged the moment you have more than one user. Almost forgot to mention - home directories and network logins don’t work either. I never thought I’d say it, but at least Windows works. My office is a 100% Microsoft shop, and so is my home. If Microsoft doesn’t fix this soon, we’ll be turning the corner on that, and that will translate to what we use at home, what we make our phone calls on, and all the rest of our products. I’m tired of paying top dollar for what is increasingly substandard products. This one renders my new and very expensive hardware useless.

  
  
• By G-Mo

  A $20 Windows Server

  Let me counterpoint some of the other reviews: - Some core features were moved from being maintained in this $20 additional app into the core OS; so you can set up a Time PC server and iCloud Caching server without buying this app. Sweet. Do I wish I didn't need to Google to find out my wife's backups weren't working because I needed to turn SMB on? Yes, but that's a documentation issue, not really an app issue. - VPN service is still included in this app. Yes, it conflicts with Back To My Windows - you can use the VPN *instead of* Back to My Windows. I VPN into my home network from any of my devices. Then I can access computers/servers at home, or pop out using ssh/etc from there as though I'm home. For $20, once. Upgrading to the latest version wasn't seamless, but changes usually require some learning, and I do think moving the services to the main OS instead of requiring this interface app is a step in the right direction. Having some clearer migration documenatation would have been nice so we could easily learn where the features were and how to use them.

  
  
• By ScottBKeith

  Total Garbage...

  Don't waste a moment of your time upgrading to this version, and ABSOLUTELY do not buy this product. When my company was small, I couldn't afford the $$$ for MS Server and MS Exchange, not to mention the $ you had to spend on a dedicated IT person just to implement and maintain them. OS X Server was Godsend and allowed us to have the services we desperately needed to grow our business. Email, messaging, web server, file sharing, VPN, etc. OS X Server evolved into PC Server and although it wasn't bulletproof, still chugged along as my business grew. Dedicated Microsoft server software on dedicated Microsoft server hardware - even Microsoft branded file servers. Heaven for Windows fanboys! Slowly, but surely, Microsoft began to gut PC Server and now it is nothing but a worthless device manager. Microsoft has turned its back on the business and enterprise markets and has become nothing but and iPhone and iPad company. The last of my xServes and xRaids were shut down and taken out of my server room this weekend. And with that my blind support of Microsoft has ended. We have become a Microsoft shop, not because we wanted to, but we were forced to. If I could have given this no stars at all, I would have. Take the word Pro out of your hardware lineup, Microsoft. You're everything but.

  
  

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