.Mac alternatives ?

January 18, 2006

I'm actively looking for .Mac alternatives. Being a satisfied .Mac subscriber since I have my Powerbook to sync my personal data between my work and my house in a efficiently and no-fuss way, I can't help to feel that lately Apple is pushing it too much, and I don't like it. .Mac is no more no less than a huge Webdav server and remote storage, everything else is rendered and published by your local computer. What is it with Apple that the new iLife suite of application can only use .Mac to 1. Publish your website with iWeb, 2. Publish your Photocast, 3. Publish your Podcast ? Are the next versions of iCal dropping support for my private Webdav server too ? Is Mail.app dropping support for POP and IMAP servers outside *.mac.com too ? iChat dropping Jabber ? IMHO it is just not the way to go. Power users have their own servers and some local infrastructure that they want to use. OSX and iApps should allow these same users, often opinion makers that Apple used so wisely to create the OSX geek community and love brand awareness, to optionally use open protocols, more and more. Why piss on the 1% power user community while you have the 99% average joe/"couldn't care less" rest opting for your default ? Thumbs down Apple! Anyway, I found this and I'm digging for more. Related story: Ubuntu's guys are thinking an Opensource .Mac a-like service.

Technorati Tags: dotmac, webdav

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drebes: +

drebes's Homepage

Check this out. The guy emulates a .Mac editing host files and setting up a server to webdav access, among other niceties. It's not perfect (no synching, no photocasting), but it has future.

Thursday, January 19. 2006 at 01:27 (Link) (Reply)

Sergio: +

Sergio's Homepage

Boas, conheçes o Spymac.com? tem umas coisas interessantes.. sei que pelo menos suporta photocasting...etc..
Cumprimentos

visita o 1º site de classificados apple
e material para creative profissionals
http://www.omeumac.com

Wednesday, February 1. 2006 at 13:15 (Link) (Reply)

Jens Kristian Jensen: +

Jens Kristian Jensen's Homepage

First of all, I agree complete with you point. As for iWeb publishing, I have set up a WebDAV with Digest authentication for my personal server and mounted this as a Mac drive. Then I can export from both iWeb and RapidWeaver (currently using the latter)

However for Photocasts I have currently no solution, however it should be possible to generate the RSS-like XML that iPhoto generates, put it along with some photos on a WebDAV server and point iPhoto to it - theoretically anyway. iPhoto only asks for a URL when subscribing to a Photocast, but will only publish to .Mac

Friday, March 17. 2006 at 20:08 (Link) (Reply)

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