I have a MacBook Pro and an Intel based iMac… Heard a fellow co-worker tell me that he installed OS X Lion Server on his machine just so he can install Oracle 11g and Oracle Application Server.
Been considering installing OS X Lion Server on both of my machines with the intention of having my iMac as a dedicated server.
My question is that I use both computers for general purpose computing (word processing, mail, ical, keynote, etc) but also develop software (Java, Eclipse, etc).
Would installing OS X Server Lion be an overkill (meaning is it just server software but people can’t use it for other purposes such as iTunes and playing video games)?
If I did a Time Machine backup and reformatted both computers to be using OS X Server Lion would the previous Time Machine back up from just OS X Lion and OS X Snow Leopard restore everything for me?
Also, is OS X Server just OS X with some cool server applications running on it (along with UI for these server apps) or is it a completely different beast (incompatible with lots of apps)?
Would appreciate some thoughts and feedback.
Lion Server is not actually a separate version of the operating system, it’s just an additional application bundle you can download. So you’ll still be able to use everything as you normally would.