I think it's just a matter of who you're fortunate enough to happen to deal 
with in either case.  But let me highlight another of these unfortunate issues 
with Apple.  About 3 years ago now, I highlighted an accessibility issue with 
Apple's technical people regarding an issue in their Server OS.  Specifically, 
the inability for a VoiceOver user to import SSL certificates into the OS.  I 
spent several hours on the phone, at my expense, discussing it with their 
engineers in the states.  At that time, peak time phone calls to the US were 
quite expensive.  But I considered it sufficiently important an issue to 
justify the expense and effort.

I was promised that, when the next edition of Server was released, (that being 
Lion), this issue would be addressed.

The release of Lion came, and I, like many other people using OS X for 
server-based solutions at the time, was astonished to find out that Apple had 
merged Server into their regular operating system, doing away with the purchase 
of a dedicated OS.  In some ways this makes sense, as many of the functions 
available in the server version of OS X are actually present, but disabled, in 
the client OS.  Many again were actually squashed out, to be fair, and I had no 
problem at all with the concept of a separate purchase.

Anyway, Lion Server came along and with it came the self same bug that I had 
discussed with Apple at the time when Snow Leopard Server was current.  No 
effort whatsoever had been made it seems to have the file boxes which were 
missing exposed to VoiceOver.

In Mountain Lion, the server was placed in the App Store as a purchase.  In 
fact, it is no longer part of the OS, but it is an add-on which you buy, no 
need for a separate OS.  However, in Server version 2.0 which is the current 
incarnation, that very same bug which I reported directly to engineering at the 
time of Snow Leopard still exists today.  In fact, the GUI has been stripped 
quite a lot.  There are several functions which I cannot find a way to enable.  
I won't go into all of this on list because it is bound nopt to be of interest 
to most.  But all the same, I'm disappointed that Apple seems to have totally 
disregarded the report of such a serious bug, and for server administrators it 
is a serious bug.

I have an AppleCare plan on one of our Server machines.  So I wrote a detailed 
description of the problem to Apple in the hope that somebody might listen.  
Sadly, I never even got a response, save the usual automated thank you 
response.  They don't seem to see this as a serious enough issue to waste their 
time fixing.  This really is a serious problem and I won't waste more of my 
time and money trying to explain it to them.  I have yet to find a work-around 
for it and, if there is one in the OS from Terminal or somewhere, I'd very much 
like to know about it.

I even looked at third-party server solutions which run on top of OS X.  But 
the price of the most comprehensive of them is simply too high to justify.  
It's costing Lynne and I a grey deal of money to keep Mac Access going as it 
is.  We don't mind that fact, (although a little help now and then wouldn't go 
unappreciated). :)

Kind regards

<--- Gordon Smith --->

<gor...@mac-access.net>

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------------------------------

On 20 Jul 2013, at 19:17, Josh Gregory <joshkar...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Definitely agree, and I would hate to see them go the way of humanware, not 
> saying that they or Apple are bad companies, but both companies responses 
> could definitely be improved a bit.

<--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net --->

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