Leopard more geared to nontechies

Mac OS Server Version 10.5, code-named Leopard, scheduled for release in October, will likely have a limited effect on corporate America's Apple acceptance level. Leopard is targeted specifically at small businesses and workgroups, allowing "even nontechnical users to set up and manage" the platform, according to the company.

That said, Leopard will include some options for IT professionals, including automatic configuration for file and printer sharing, as well as more options for e-mail, calendar, address book and backup.

Enderle said Leopard should also address some interoperability issues, making the Mac operating system able to more fully integrate with Windows.

Tayco's Wozniak said he believes an advantage of Leopard will be the integration of some new features such as an open-source calendar and Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) authentication. RADIUS is intended to work in both local and roaming situations in, for example, Apple's AirPort wireless base station.

LiveWorld's Oliver said Leopard is expected to improve the ability to add clustering to mail servers.

"Most of these new features can be done now if you want to do it yourself, but with Leopard Apple is stepping up to a more robust operating system," Oliver said.