by , 12:55 PM EDT, May 13th, 2005

Mike Davis, senior research analyst with Butler Group, has released a research note that focuses on the server edition of Mac OS X v10.4 "Tiger," which he thinks should make Apple more competitive in the data center market. In the report, a copy of which was obtained by The Mac Observer, Mr. Davis writes: "Apple has directly addressed the objections to migration from other platforms onto OS X and in using Apple's Xserve servers.

"It has full 64-bit support, and as a direct challenge to data centre managers who might dismiss using Xserve, and OS X in mixed environments, the Server variant includes support for Access Control Lists (ACLs) and native file permissions of Microsoft Windows XP, and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory environments."

He then relates other important features found in Tiger Server, including an iChat server for deploying instant messaging within an organization and Xgrid software for building supercomputers out of clusters of Xserves and Power Macs. Mr. Davis concludes: "With Tiger, Apple has produced the best desktop operating system in the world to date, and with the server variant it is a serious contender for the data centre."