While Apache still ships with Mountain Lion (and it’s still available via the Terminal), the quick switch to turn the Sharing service on and off disappeared entirely from System Preferences when the new operating system was released. Thankfully, Tyler Hall managed to create his very own Preference Pane application that lets you manage Apache in the same way that Apple did before Mountain Lion. Better yet, he’s released the Preference Pane application for free on his blog.
Because of VirtualHostX, I happen to have all the code necessary to manage Apache on OS X. That includes turning the server on and off. So here’s a replacement System Preferences pane you can install that lets you manage Apache just like before. Enjoy.
A lot of features disappeared in Mountain Lion without even a hint from Apple that they were about to disappear. A prime example is RSS support in Mail.app. A lot of people were plenty annoyed when they upgraded to Mountain Lion and noticed their RSS subscriptions disappeared without warning (luckily you can get them back). While I didn’t get hit by the RSS right-hook doled out by Apple, I certainly found myself annoyed once I realized that Apple disabled the Web Sharing option in Mountain Lion’s system preferences.
I don’t need the service on all the time, and MAMP is a bit of an overkill for some projects I’m working on, but this new System Preference Pane will sure come in handy over the next couple of weeks.
Huge thanks goes out to Tyler Hall for putting this together, and a bigger thanks to OS X Daily for the snazzy find. You should really check out their site; they have a ton of great tips on a daily basis.
