$10,000 for an alternative to Apple .Mac

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Tim Gaden14 December 2006, 10:43 AM

The notMac Challenge is offering a prize of $10,000 to the first developer to come up with a open-source dotMac replacement service. Let's be honest. We all need it. Apple's .Mac service is dead in the water.


The notMac Challenge is offering a prize of $10,000 to the first developer to come up with a open-source dotMac replacement service.

Let's be honest. When it started, a .Mac subscription (or, even earlier, the free iTools service) was a revolutionary, cutting-edge service. Offering HomePage web hosting, iDisk, a mac.com email address, anti-virus software, Backup, iCards and iReview, it represented something new and innovative in the best Apple tradtion.

Since then, the Internet and a growing bundle of Web 2.0 services have erroded both the value and the innovation of a .Mac account.

I subscribe to .Mac these days not because it offers something I can't get elsewhere or is good value for money, but out of some (misguided?) loyalty to Apple.

And I am not the only one.

Kent, the driving force behind the notMac Challenge is offering to match dollar for dollar contributions from the public towards the US$10,000 ($12,732) prize.

To win it, you will need to come up with "a free replacement to dotMac's client-based services that's easy enough for a first-time Mac user to install and so fully and transparently integrated that a long-time dotMac user wouldn't notice the difference."

Read the full rules of the competition. Make a donation. Get coding. Please.


 


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Anonymous:

Don't forget the one feature feature in .Mac that keeps tempting me to get accounts for the family ... the ability to easily share iCal calendars. But then I think of having to get a .Mac account for every family member, and I laugh because there's just no way.

29 February 2008, 8:29 PM (9 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Anonymous:

If you're looking to share calendar with family, there is already a free solution called 'webdav'. Its a web server extension which allows you to easily upload / publish to a webserver. Its free and takes about 10 minutes to install.

29 February 2008, 8:34 PM (9 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

jbelkin:

There is a FAMILY PACK for 5 users for around $179. .mac seems to engender a lot of feelings for/against it - most of it from people who have never used it. Yes, you can get free email from elsewhere but no ads on .Mac. Yes, you can get "free" storage elsewhere but you really trust them not to go out of business? And like .Mac, do they offer you an icon of a virtual HDD so you can just drag files to it? Yea, unlikely. Yes, if you don't mind 20 separate logins, you can replicate 80% of .Mac but why bother for pennies a day?

Think of it this way - this service from Apple is called OSX .Mac ... your alternative 20 sites to match .Mac?, let's just call it XP .Mac - the comparison to apt.

29 February 2008, 8:29 PM (9 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

tobyglenn:

There is a free alt. to iCal that is more feature ritch, free, and easy to use. It is google cal. Just sign up for gmail and start using google cal. All of your family can use it and you can share your cal with them.

29 February 2008, 8:34 PM (9 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Anonymous:

Or just wait a little while for the bridge between the two to come out of beta.
http://spanningsync.com/

29 February 2008, 8:34 PM (9 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Afrodream ;n; beaded sandals:

I think all this is about open source community. Dont you know the best thibgs in life are free

29 February 2008, 8:29 PM (9 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

r3zonance:

Don't you know there is no such thing as a free lunch?

29 February 2008, 8:34 PM (9 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Steve K.:

There are plenty of alternates to Dot Mac that are much better values. You can ealily put together apps that do the same thing as the Dot Mac apps. You can do Calendars, Syncing, Webmail, Websites, Cards, Podcasts, etc. with other apps. The challenge is Open-Source though which is interesting!

29 February 2008, 8:29 PM (9 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

E:

http://www.tnpi.biz/computing/mac/tips/idisk/idisk-v2.shtml

29 February 2008, 8:29 PM (9 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

wsteele.nyc:

Look For it. You don't know who I am, but it's in the works and will be free.

29 February 2008, 8:29 PM (9 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Danny:

I just renewed my .Mac account for $55 including shipping, using a serial number from a .Mac box sold by a third party. I found it via Froogle. Works for purchases and activating trial accounts too, perfectly legit. Apple says:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302032

More:
http://homepage.mac.com/cherrypop/iblog/C1900478167/E20060925071526/index.html

29 February 2008, 8:29 PM (9 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Danny:

Apple Support

apple project

29 February 2008, 8:35 PM (9 months ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

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