Mac Total Cost of Ownership
So we just set up our new OS X Leopard server for the office. Works great.
Shortly after I set it up, I was showing one of our employees around the user interface. He glanced up at the server itself and said ‘when did we get this one?’
I looked at it for a moment and said “Well, this is the first Mac that I bought…” then froze.
“Holy shit…” I breathed, “I bought this right before Isaac was born, and he’s almost four and a half. Can that be right?”
It was, in fact, right. Our ‘new’ company server is the dual 2.0 GHz G5 machine that I bought for $3,000 in 2003. It’s not surprising that a machine old is still in use, but it is surprising that it is running the latest generation server operating system, fully loaded, as well as it is.
All of our macs have retained their value well. Our Apple machines are the first computers that I have ever gotten extended warranties on, because they *do* eventually breakdown and they still server critical roles within our business.
Hell of a buy.
March 11th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Well, I’ve got a Dell PowerEdge 400SC I bought in 2001 that is still going strong as a server running the latest version of Ubuntu. I don’t think this is mac specific - Linux and Mac both have good shelf life. And Ubuntu Server (or CentOS or whatever your favorite) is much cheaper than Leopard Server.
I’m happy to pay for the desktop OS but for servers, it’s really hard to pay the Apple prices. You guys might be the sweet spot that fits the Mac server market - you know what you are doing but don’t want to spend the time on it. For smaller or larger, I’d argue that Linux is nearly always a better choice.
March 11th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
For all the crap that people gave the Cube, my 2001 500MHz G4 Cube has been running 24/7 since I bought it (probably less than a total of a few days downtime in all these years) and has never once given me troubles. It runs as my home server without issues, not making a sound, never needing maintenance. While I may change to a new server this year or next, I’m sure the Cube will function happily for years to come.
I like that Macs can run just about any OS these days, and that the hardware isn’t any more expensive than equal offerings from other companies (often cheaper, especially on high-end machines). The engineering is fantastic, too, as with my Mac Pro.
March 15th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
It’s interesting…when I look at the overall design of Apple’s laptops within the last 8 years am reminded of the overall design of the VW Beetle. A 1963 VW Beetle looks an awful lot like a 1993 VW Beetle, 30 years later.
I was shocked to see some old 12″ Powerbooks running recent versions of Adobe’s suite last weekend at SXSW. Those old machines can still handle some hefty chores.