One vision of technology we have kind of lost is the notion of a “server on every desktop”. This has always been relatively easy to do with Macs and some years ago with Windows machines. With so many online services at low or no cost, I think we lost sight of this opportunity. I suppose local service providers also object and I can’t say I know a solution to that problem.
The reason I bring this up is that the new Mac OS appears to be even more server friendly (this from MacWorld).
Mac OS X Server will be provided at the same cost as Mac OS X client, most likely around $129 if Apple sticks with its traditional operating system pricing. To install Lion Server, you would simply choose the Customize option when you run the installer. So every Mac user running Lion will be able to run the server software. And that leads to some interesting speculation about what server features Apple may offer to home users.
Maybe few care, but running your own server can be a great learning experience and it also offers the opportunity to diversify information sources in an era when it seems everything is consolidating.