The question of the advantage of the Mac dedicated server has been bugging me for awhile since my last post about it, and today I searched around looking for people who can claim an objective advantage to it that isn’t dependent on application compatibility. Besides this article here I didn’t find much (and that article is suspicious in its claims- it doesn’t back any of them up with evidence), and I have come to the conclusion that there isn’t anything an Apple dedicated server offers out-of-the-box compared to a Linux server- and the Linux server is free to boot. Other forum threads like this one actually advocate against a Mac server because the GUI uses needless CPU cycles, and tell you to just stick with Linux servers in general (advice I tend to agree with!).
That said, however, I have come to the realization from these discussions that there is a certain level of personal preference in selecting the operating system of your dedicated server. If you’re used to learning and working in a Mac, then- it may be more effective and efficient for you to continue working in that operating system on your dedicated server (though you should take the time to learn Linux!). There are, of course, certain restrictions on that; if you need a program that’s Windows or Mac specific, for example, you’re pretty much limited to whichever OS the application was written for. If that’s not a consideration, however, take into account what you know, what you don’t know, and what you’re willing to learn (and how fast you can learn it)- chances are it may be worth sticking with what you know rather than spending precious time learning something new.
(Though I still advocate Linux!)