Comments on: Thoughts on Apple’s Mac Mini Server for the Small Church

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 19:59:28 +0000

I love the mini server, I bought one for our church to replace a dying G4 MDD. The speed is fantastic and Mac OS X Server 10.6 has been outstanding.

By: John Saddington

John Saddington — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 02:28:37 +0000

love the idea about podcasting.

By: John Saddington

John Saddington — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 02:27:55 +0000

ah. that’s true.

By: John Saddington

John Saddington — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 02:26:07 +0000

that’s a good point.

By: John Saddington

John Saddington — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 02:24:14 +0000

good point here.

By: Stuart

Stuart — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 07:32:33 +0000

I consider the church I attend and support as small.

In numbers we’re <200 but we are in a fairly unique position in that as a church we employ 5 (or is it 6) full time workers including the pastor and approx another 4 or so part time. One of the reasons we can do this is that we also run a book (christian) importing business which then distributes these throughout the UK. In a lot of the cases we are the sole importers.

Additionally we run a playgroup 5 mornings a week which employs two more part time and we hire out our rooms, etc to local companies wanting larger areas for conferences, AGM's etc.

Yet IT is still last on their list of thoughts despite needing to rely on it so much.

By: Nick Shoemaker

Nick Shoemaker — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 04:25:37 +0000

I’m here as well.

And what’s the definition of a small church? To me it’s >100. In this case there may only be 1-2 staff members and anything beyond basic would probably consume too much of their time.

By: Brent

Brent — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 17:06:50 +0000

While I would probably go the route of gApps for much of the communication features, the mini server is also a valuable addition. With Mac OS X Server you get all available services. The mini can make a great Internal wiki or file server or use podcast producer in your workflow.

By: Stuart

Stuart — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 09:02:48 +0000

Had Google Apps, etc been around when I first setup our church IT then I’d have sent them down that path. As it is we get a good mail service from our current ISP / hosting service and movign them now would be problematic in terms of training / support issues.

But agreed – google mail and apps is definitely the way for a smaller organisation.

By: Stuart

Stuart — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 09:01:07 +0000

Well along with another report I’ve just read this morning that Macs are cheaper to run than PCs then it can only be good stuff.

However – Apple very much need to address the issue of fixing flaws quicker than they do and in having a business based oradmap for their kit. Maybe this is the first step.