The Macintosh computer and operating system has many distinct advantages over any other platform or operating system being used as web servers. Listed below are those components that make the Mac a superior machine and how they affect the serving of your web page. This list will develop over time as we enter one advantage after another, so no cracks about a limited number of entries while we build this section. :)
Security
- The Macintosh platform is more secure than any other platform because it is more secure than any other platform. That may sound redundant, but it is absolutely true. In test after test, hackers have been specifically employed to crack into a Macintosh server; they have met with no success. Further, the very file system that Macintosh uses prevents a hacker from cracking the tree structure at all. Without that rather important piece of information, it is impossible for the hacker to get into the system and even begin to do damage.
- Another aspect of Macintosh that allows for security is the method in which executable files are constructed. Each file has a data fork *and* a resource fork. Both forks must exist independently of one another. But in downloading an executable program to a Macintosh, the only way to do so is to combine the two forks. That gets the application to the server, but does not allow it to launch. And to separate the two forks, a user must be physically sitting at the keyboard connected to the platform itself. In other words, a malicious user can download nasty application programs all day long and they will not work unless we specifically unstuff and activate the program (which we are not going to do.)
- Macintosh also uses a system of file reference called Aliases. When a user FTPs a file into their homespace, the file is not actually in their homespace. What *is* placed there is an alias of the file. If a hacker does not have access to the actual file server on which the actual files reside, they can not do anything to the files themselves. All they could possibly do is look at the aliases for those files. Unfortunately for the committed hacker (and fortunately for you,) they can't even do anything to those aliases; to do so would require using AppleTalk rather than TCP/IP and a hacker can not remotely access a Macintosh via the Internet with AppleTalk; we shut them down tight at the router.
- Homespace protection is yet another security feature of the Macintosh. Any user, even with a valid passcode, can only access their home directory as root relative to themselves. A user can not "back up" through the directory tree to see anything else on any one of the machines in use throughout the entire system. Someone can hack their own files, but that's all. That means that in the event a legitimate user happens to have breached security for their own passcode, the hacker who then tries to use that passcode can never get any farther into the system than the homespace for that given user. Granted, the hacker can do some serious damage to the user's files, but they can not affect any other user on the system. In the event of such a passcode security breech, the only one to suffer is the person who breached his or her own security.
- URL Case insensitivity:
- In most web environments, your URL is case sensitive. In other words, if your URL reads www.yourcompay.com/Document.html, most of the time if a user types in <document> (lower case) the web server will return a File Not Found error. A Macintosh disregards the capital "D" and serves the page as intended.
- Up and running out of the box
- In the event Kelly Freehold has to swap a computer due to CPU failure, it is a simple matter to do a quick swap of a machine. The Macintosh platform is so well configured that it is a simple matter to plug and play. Downtime is kept at a minimum since there is no need to go through a major system programming as one would with a UNIX box.
- Open Transport
- Open Transport is the underlying networking architecture that gives networking on the Macintosh transport independence. It does not matter if TCP/IP, Novell, AppleTalk are being used; all protocols are handled efficiently. Open Transport has also been demonstrated as compatible with the new IPv6 protocol that will be shortly implemented on the Internet.
- Program integration
- All Macintosh third party vendor software applications are written on a common standard. They work well together by their very nature thereby reducing or eliminating server crashes and hangs.
- Price
- Any given Macintosh platform not only costs far less than the equivalent UNIX or NT machine, but it is also far less costly to maintain its successful operation. No need to employ an $80K per year UNIX guru to run a Mac. That saves Kelly Freehold a significant amount of money, savings which we then pass on to our customers.
- Machine efficiency
- The architecture of the Macintosh platform allows for less power consumption than other platforms. As such, it costs less to power the machine itself and also saves on climate control systems to maintain a static temperature in the server room.
