Mac OS X 10.5 server gives us a glimpse into the not-so-distant future from Apple. Speaking of, have you heard about the new features of Mac OS X 10.5? Actually, neither have we - we haven't heard a thing about Apple's newest operating system, called 'Leopard," since the time of the World Wide Developer's Conference in August of 2006. We'll focus on some of the new features here - this server does more to satisfy business needs than the regular desktop operating system.

DESKTOP CAPABILITIES

Time Machine:

Apple already has Backup, but has gone one better with Time Machine. Initially it makes one complete backup of your system (on an external drive or network sharepoint) and then periodically backs up files that have changed. You can retrieve past versions of files or files you've recently deleted by zooming your window back through time just like the name suggests.

Spotlight:

From Apple's web site: 'More haystacks? No problem. Spotlight for Leopard finds what you're looking for on other Macs, including servers running Mac OS X Leopard Server. Just set up your remote Macs for file sharing and Spotlight includes results from those machines in your search. That's one-stop searching on any Leopard machine with access to your network.'

Spaces:

Take your desktop and cadre of constantly running applications to task, and organize it. It can be pretty busy, even with Exposé to organize things. Spaces allows you to divide your running applications and items into multiple desktops; a "web" space for your browser(s), HTML authoring apps, a "creative" space for iLife and iWork, etc. The names we've suggested here are just that- suggestions. Your limits are your own.

In Leopard, Spotlight provides a richer syntax so you can search for more specific sets of things. Use new Boolean logic to narrow search results by entering "AND," "OR," and "NOT" into a search request. You can also search using specific file attributes — author, type, or keyword, for example"

Dashboard:

Perhaps one of the coolest things about dashboard in Mac OS X 10.5 is "Web clip" , which allows you to take a section of a web page and turn it into a widget all it's own, no coding required. You really just need to see the demo of this to get how cool this is.

SERVER CAPABILITIES

Mac OS Server 10.5, Apple's sixth OS X Server release in as many years. This new 'Leopard' server brings a few anticipated and unexpected features to the table with this release:

iCal Server:

This is based on the CalDAV standard, a conglomeration of existing standards allowing cross-platform calendaring, free-busy checking, and full Open Directory integration -- that's close to an SBS-killer.

Teams Directory:

Apple's catch phrase for its built-in Wiki Server, taking their previous attempt at a blog-server (based on blojsom) one step further.

Spotlight Server:

Apple's incredibly-fast content and meta-data search engine capability to mounted volumes, allowing for lightning-fast searches across your company's gigabytes (or terabytes?) of shared storage. Think about the plug-in possibilities to create a shared asset server.

Also in the rumor mill is that the NSA is revising its security paper on Mac OS X 10.3 to accommodate Mac OS X 10.5.

Ask us for a "Mac-readiness" assessment of your network to see how you can take advantage of Leopard's incredible feature set.