When you install Mac OS X Server you have the option to use Standard, Workgroup or Advanced. I have installed Standard for writing articles/books/etc about it, but from the first day I saw it I knew it wasn’t for me. Workgroup has some augmented record reasons you might use it, but is otherwise similar. Advanced is pretty much, make my server look like it did in 10.4 Server. Here you have Server Admin, Workgroup Manager and the other tools that comprise a Mac OS X systems administrators toolkit.
But Standard is synonymous with “Simple” in this case and should rarely be used. If you are fairly non-technical then it can act as a nice gateway drug to bigger and better things – in that case you don’t necessarily need the configuration granularity that you have readily at your fingertips with “Advanced”. However, be able to leave behind Server Preferences and quickly transition into full-blown tools (it will ask you if you want to do so the first time you open Server Admin) at any time as you start to find that it’s limited in what it can do…
