Newton’s Lore

Sun’s open source virtualization package xVM VirtualBox is out of beta for Mac OS X and available for download. Note that it can’t currently host Mac OS X (aside from the licensing issues that only allow you to virtualize Mac OS X Server). According to ZDNet Sun sells a commercial version with USB support and an RDP server.
If you download it and can’t open the archive you may need to remove the ‘.bz2′ from the end of the filename.

Today I’m logging in to a server remotely using Mac OS X Server’s Server Admin tool and I get a dialog asking “Server Admin wants to use the PrivateEncryptedDatak keychain”. Which is interesting as I have no idea what the password is, and googling the term only seems to find a few references which mention Adobe AIR, which I installed earlier today. Curiouser and curiouser.

Edition.net are offering dedicated Xserve server solutions for US$250 (presumably per month, plus US$400 setup). For that you get “MacOSX Server featuring Xserve - 1.33Ghz PowerPC G4, 60gig storage, 512MB ram, WebObjects 5″. Although the RAM (and storage) seems a bit small. There are other options available which include WebStar V, FileMaker Unlimited (version 5?), and Lasso Pro 6 (not 8!). They do offer “flat-rate pricing with no traffic surcharges”.

digital.forest offers an Enhanced plan for US$30 setup and US$19/month (+US$10/month for MySQL) with perl, PHP5, Python, Mac OS X and more, 100MB of storage, and 3Gb of data transfer. Not sure what their colocating price is like though as you need to contact a salesdroid. Digital.forest have been around since 1994 and have a long time association with Mac newsletter TidBITs.

You might want to check out this documentation if you want to set up a redundant DHCP system.

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard’s license allows it to be virtualised, provided that

1. it is virtualised on Apple hardware,
2. sufficient licenses are purchased to cover each virtual instance

2. Permitted License Uses and Restrictions.

A. Mac OS X Server Software. This License allows you to install and use one copy of the Mac OS X Server software (the “Mac OS X Server Software”) on a single Apple-labeled computer. You may also install and use other copies of Mac OS X Server Software on the same Apple-labeled computer, provided that you acquire an individual and valid license from Apple for each of these other copies of Mac OS X Server Software.

via comments on the MacEnterprise mailing list.

Tonga is at GMT+13hrs, which means that it’s now 26th of October there, and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is officially released and no longer under NDA

Apple have released documentation to cover Leopard Server, in particular new features such as (PDFs) PodCast Producer, iCal Server, Wiki and Blogs (Web Services), System Imaging and Software Update.

Apple have officially announced that Mac OS X 10.5 and Mac OS X 10.5 Server will ship at 6pm on Friday October 26th.

Pre-orders are now being accepted, Single user US$129, Family pack US$199.

Lots of useful tips about Apple Software Restore multicast at the site of Mike Bombich (The NetRestore and CarbonCopyCloner guy).

If you’re thinking of buying a Mac or an iPod it may be worthwhile checking out the MacRumors buyers’ guide first.