OK, so, you just bought a new Mac and you don't know what to do with your old Mac you just replaced? Why not make it work for you as a server. Or, maybe, you just want to start a blog or a media hub and don't want to pay someone else for this service. Just pick up an old machine, if you don't have one already, and together with this site you will be able to make your old(er/ish) computer work for you however you want it to.

     In case you haven't figured it out by just reading the above paragraph, this site is dedicated to the use of Macintosh computers. There will be no instructions for setting up Windows or linux on this site.

     This site will cover setting up your older computer as a server using Mac OS X. To be more specific, this site will cover using Mac OS X Leopard, the non-server version. You may ask why only cover Leopard? Well, between the limited hardware I own for installations, time for testing, and certain software requirements, it was decided to only cover Leopard. Furthermore, the only hardware you will find referenced and recommended are the machines that will officially support running Leopard. There are other means that you might be able to get Leopard running on older non-supported hardware, such as LeopardAssist or XPostFacto, but these means will not be covered on this site at this time. You may also ask, why the non-server version of the OS? As covered later in this introduction, one of the purposes of this site is to provide cheap, or inexpensive solutions for setting up a server. At $500 for the server version of Mac OS X Leopard, I don't call that cheap, or inexpensive for personal use.

     By following the instructions on this site, it is assumed that you are working from a completely clean install of the OS (installation is covered in a separate tutorial) from a legal retail install disk, not an "archive and install" or any other methods of moving old data over from a previous install of the OS. It it also assumed that by following any of the tutorials or other instructions on this site, that any loss of data or damage of any other sort is strictly your own responsibility.

     The purpose of this site is to provide a good balance of the easiest and cheapest ways to do things for getting the most out of your old hardware. A nice side benefit is to help keep it out of a landfill as long as possible too. There may be easier OR cheaper ways to do things than the way I cover on this site, but I am trying to create a balance of the cheapest AND easiest way to get it set up and provide instructions. If you feel that there might be a less confusing or better way to do something, please let me know.