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2 Inside Mac OS X Server
Mac OS X Server blends a mature, stable UNIX foundation
with open standards support and Macintosh ease of use.
This chapter introduces the services that Mac OS X Server offers and tells you where to
find more information about them.
Core System Services
Mac OS X Server is built on top of Darwin—the core Mac OS X operating system.
Darwin integrates Mach 3.0 operating-system services based on 4.4 BSD (Berkeley
Software Distribution), high-performance networking facilities, and support for
multiple integrated file systems.
A key factor in the stability of the system is Darwin’s advanced memory protection and
management system. Darwin ensures reliability by providing applications and
processes their own unique address space. The Mach kernel augments standard virtual
memory semantics with the abstraction of memory objects, providing support for
separate simultaneous application environments while presenting users with a
seamless experience.
Ease of use and simplicity are hallmarks of Mac OS X. Mac OS X is visually powerful,
using graphics technologies based on OpenGL, Quartz, and QuickTime. Mac OS X
Server takes advantage of these capabilities by providing administrators with server
management applications that are easy to use, but powerful and secure. Yet
administrators who prefer to work in a command-line environment can do so. A
complete shell environment, including popular UNIX utilities, offers a full palette of
command-line administration techniques.
Read on to learn about the services that Mac OS X Server provides to extend its
Mac OS X core in order to support Macintosh, Windows, UNIX, and Linux clients over a
network. To learn more about server administration tools, see Chapter 3, “Server
Administration,” on page 47.
LL2343.Book Page 29 Thursday, August 14, 2003 5:12 PM