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josiahpugh · Sep 18, 2005, 04:40 PM

Okay so I'm finally ditching .Mac after being with Apple since the day iTools started. I'm a little sad but I've managed to replace most everything .Mac offered. First and foremost I've replaced .Mac email with GMail, however I lack the synchronized mail so I often end up doing my email checking in Safari (I liked Mail too...). I think that may be resolved with GMail supports IMAP. I've replaced Homepage with a real server (I needed more control anyways). The only things I can't seem to replace are the wonderful address book syncing for viewing and editing my address book on the web. The online bookmarks were useful but somehow I'll live without them. And I could almost not care about iCards.
So my question is, how are you getting along without .Mac and how are you relacing these technologies? For those of you who are considering leaving .Mac what keeps you from doing it?

josiahpugh · Sep 18, 2005, 05:15 PM

Also, I've started to use Growl and GMail Notifier to replace the little red dot on Mail's application icon to indicate new mail.

moonmonkey · Sep 19, 2005, 05:25 AM

Originally Posted by josiahpugh

Also, I've started to use Growl and GMail Notifier to replace the little red dot on Mail's application icon to indicate new mail.

Mail app works fine with GMail.
You don't need GMail Notifier.

josiahpugh · Sep 19, 2005, 07:37 AM

My only problem with using GMail and Mac OS X Mail is that when I read/delete/whatever inside of Mail the changes are reflected back in GMail. This wouldn't be a problem except I use both GMail's web front and Mac OS X Mail.

Maflynn · Sep 19, 2005, 07:44 AM

While you certainly can replace all of .mac's functionality for less money, I have to say having the tools intergrated nicely into OSX is alluring. I was hosting my website on .mac but found it too slow and too much work. I'm an amatuer photopgraher and I do not spend time working on web pages when I could be improving my photography skills. With that said I now use .mac mostly for the email, and I have thought about moving that off. I've been pretty pleased with .mac in that respect.

Mike

Big Mac · Sep 19, 2005, 09:39 AM

For me, the main attraction of iTools/.Mac is the @mac.com email address. Everything else is just a bonus.

beverson · Sep 20, 2005, 09:05 PM

Originally Posted by josiahpugh

Okay so I'm finally ditching .Mac after being with Apple since the day iTools started....

So it may be too late or irrelevant, but Apple just upgraded .Mac pretty significantly (in my opinion). iDisk/e-mail combined server storage up to 1GB. New Backup (not perfect, but definitely improved). Some other stuff.

Yeah, .Mac isn't perfect, nor is it for everyone. I've been around since day one of iTools as well. Originially I went with .Mac just to keep my e-mail address, but now I'm definitely hooked on some of the integrated stuff (local iDisk is great for me). I doubt I'll ditch it any time soon.

PHYMAC · Sep 21, 2005, 11:21 AM

The upgrade was huge for me. I was going to ditch.Mac anytime soon because I still have quite a bit left in my subscription, but I was a little annoyed with Apple for not giving more capacity especially with google and yahoo, giving so much, but now they did and I am happier! The integration into the OS is something you can't beat.

Originally Posted by beverson

So it may be too late or irrelevant, but Apple just upgraded .Mac pretty significantly (in my opinion). iDisk/e-mail combined server storage up to 1GB. New Backup (not perfect, but definitely improved). Some other stuff.

Yeah, .Mac isn't perfect, nor is it for everyone. I've been around since day one of iTools as well. Originially I went with .Mac just to keep my e-mail address, but now I'm definitely hooked on some of the integrated stuff (local iDisk is great for me). I doubt I'll ditch it any time soon.

Weyland-Yutani · Sep 21, 2005, 12:05 PM

The integration into Mac OS X is a good thing although it doesn't always *work* so well. i.e. iDisk

Well, I had .mac for 2 years and payed for that almost $200. I didn't renew now because I already get all its service except for Synchronization between Macs and Backup on-line for free.

So I realized (I'm slow like that sometimes) that I never used the .mac email because when I stop paying it stops working. I don't even get a free 2 MB box like Hotmail. Point being as soon as Apple stops receiving my money the address is ruined.

I get no guarantees from the free mail services, but then again I don't pay them anyway and they'll let me keep the adress as long as they work.

.mac mail wasn't even ad-free, which bothered me a bit. There were always Apple ads.

Even after this upgrade, I can't justify throwing more money at this. As I said, I have found replacements here and there on the web that do everything .mac did except they don't integrate with Mac OS X like .mac does. Then again they are free or come with my ISP.

cheers

W-Y

Randman · Sep 21, 2005, 09:16 PM

I never understood why people have to go out of their way to explain why they won't use .Mac.

budster101 · Sep 21, 2005, 09:25 PM

Let me explain why I do use it and have enjoyed it for over 2 years.

It works so damned well and it's sooooo easy. The rest of my life is so complicated, I need something easy once and a while, even though I have my own server with PHP, MySQL etc.

I hope this wasn't too long.

legacyb4 · Sep 21, 2005, 10:58 PM

What ads? I see far MORE ads on the forums then I do in a week of using webmail.

I, for one, decided to stay on and am quite happy with the new improvements.

Originally Posted by Weyland-Yutani

.mac mail wasn't even ad-free, which bothered me a bit. There were always Apple ads.

josiahpugh · Sep 22, 2005, 12:03 AM

Originally Posted by Randman

I never understood why people have to go out of their way to explain why they won't use .Mac.

People bitch because .Mac used to be free as iTools. Then Apple changed the name and started to charge for it. I realy do like the integration though...

iluvmymactoo · Sep 22, 2005, 05:47 AM

My .Mac account ends next month and I won't be renewing it. I can get the same services using Gmail or Yahoo 360 Degrees and it's all free. I can iChat with an AIM account - free.

Apple get enough from me what with all the hardware and software, I think they should offer .Mac as a free service.

Diggory Laycock · 05:57 AM

You could use Del.icio.us for your online bookmarks. They're publicly available though - if that concerns you then there are opensource copies of del.icio.us you could install on your own server.

For open IM - use Jabber.

Weyland-Yutani · Sep 22, 2005, 06:50 AM

Originally Posted by Randman

I never understood why people have to go out of their way to explain why they won't use .Mac.

You were not put on this earth to understand

cheers

W-Y

budster101 · Sep 22, 2005, 06:53 AM

And, nobody is getting off this planet alive, so I'm going to enjoy my dot mac.

msuper69 · Sep 22, 2005, 10:35 AM

Originally Posted by Weyland-Yutani

...
.mac mail wasn't even ad-free, which bothered me a bit. There were always Apple ads.

...

Just unsubscribe. No more Apple ads.

Weyland-Yutani · Sep 22, 2005, 01:42 PM

Originally Posted by msuper69

Just unsubscribe. No more Apple ads.

I did unsubscribe

saves me $100 a year too.

cheers

W-Y

budster101 · Sep 22, 2005, 02:27 PM

Yeah... it must break your bank account. $10/month.

iluvmymactoo · Sep 22, 2005, 03:44 PM

Originally Posted by budster101

Yeah... it must break your bank account. $10/month.

Yes it does in comparison to other free services that offer the same.

hotani · Sep 22, 2005, 03:54 PM

I use gmail for mail with notifier, yahoo for calendar, and have my own web host which is about $100/year. I get by just fine using the free iCards too. Stopped using .mac when they started charging.

budster101 · Sep 22, 2005, 04:10 PM

There are no other services that are FREE offering the same. Name one.

Can your iPhoto upload directly to that account?
Automatic updates for iLife?

Sorry... nope.

Weyland-Yutani · Sep 22, 2005, 04:39 PM

Originally Posted by budster101

There are no other services that are FREE offering the same. Name one.

Can your iPhoto upload directly to that account?
Automatic updates for iLife?

Sorry... nope.

GMail for mail (works with POP and Mail.app just as fine as .Mac)
My ISP for webhosting (get more MBs - included with my internet subscription)
AIM/MSN for chatting (I use Adium and get the best of both worlds)

With my service I get FTP access which is faster than iDisk and very convenient. Unlimited bandwidth at very fast speeds for hosting my website.

I backup with CCC on a local hard-drive and don't use iPhoto for uploading photos nor do I use iLife except for iTunes and iPhoto for managing photos and it does that ver well without .Mac.

The only benefit I'd get with .Mac that I can't get elsewhere is syncing calendars, contacts and web bookmarks between two or more Macs. That isn't worth $10 a month though. .Mac offers nice things but most of them are available for free and for people with average knowlegde of websites, computers and the internet it is a waste of money.

If you are a complete newbie with computers then I'd say it is worth it. YMMV but for me it isn't worth it. The integration with the iApps is nice but not worth paying for IMO. I did give it a chance for two years and it offered nothing essential when all is told. For newbies, granted it is something I'd recommend but for the rest of us, nah.

cheers

W-Y

budster101 · Sep 22, 2005, 04:42 PM

Now explain how to use this to a novice user or new mac switcher...

There is your answer to why .mac is worth it. Not to a few like you...

Weyland-Yutani · Sep 22, 2005, 05:16 PM

Originally Posted by budster101

Now explain how to use this to a novice user or new mac switcher...

There is your answer to why .mac is worth it. Not to a few like you...

Why? It isn't. I already told you that.

cheers

W-Y

mojo2 · Sep 22, 2005, 05:35 PM

Originally Posted by Weyland-Yutani

The integration into Mac OS X is a good thing although it doesn't always *work* so well. i.e. iDisk

Well, I had .mac for 2 years and payed for that almost $200. I didn't renew now because I already get all its service except for Synchronization between Macs and Backup on-line for free.

So I realized (I'm slow like that sometimes) that I never used the .mac email because when I stop paying it stops working. I don't even get a free 2 MB box like Hotmail. Point being as soon as Apple stops receiving my money the address is ruined.

I get no guarantees from the free mail services, but then again I don't pay them anyway and they'll let me keep the adress as long as they work.

.mac mail wasn't even ad-free, which bothered me a bit. There were always Apple ads.

Even after this upgrade, I can't justify throwing more money at this. As I said, I have found replacements here and there on the web that do everything .mac did except they don't integrate with Mac OS X like .mac does. Then again they are free or come with my ISP.

cheers

W-Y

BTW and FWIW, and IMHO, Gmail with all of it's features (and counting!) and it's 2.5 Gb storage space (and counting!) makes it THE FREE EMAIL provider of choice.

Hotmail DOES now offer more than 2mb of storage. I think they are up to 250 Mb. BUT, Hotmail has a crappy GUI AND there is no way to sort email by topic and no way to search your emails for that one particular email you may be looking for.

Gmail is terrific.

Diggory Laycock · Sep 22, 2005, 05:41 PM

Originally Posted by budster101

There are no other services that are FREE offering the same. Name one.

Can your iPhoto upload directly to that account?

Sorry... nope.

http://connectedflow.com/flickrexport/

You may not be able to have a single free service that replicates the features of .mac - but you can quite easily do it with a basket of free services.

The thorn in the side of my theory is aBook syncing - perhaps there's some LDAP service with an iSync plugin - but I don't know of it.

Weyland-Yutani · Sep 22, 2005, 06:00 PM

Originally Posted by mojo2

BTW and FWIW, and IMHO, Gmail with all of it's features (and counting!) and it's 2.5 Gb storage space (and counting!) makes it THE FREE EMAIL provider of choice.

Hotmail DOES now offer more than 2mb of storage. I think they are up to 250 Mb. BUT, Hotmail has a crappy GUI AND there is no way to sort email by topic and no way to search your emails for that one particular email you may be looking for.

Gmail is terrific.

I'm getting 25 MBs free from Hotmail now

but I agree with you, gmail is the FREE EMAIL of choice. Damn fine interface and truckloads of space! Damn fine!

cheers

W-Y

msuper69 · Sep 22, 2005, 09:39 PM

Originally Posted by Weyland-Yutani

I did unsubscribe

saves me $100 a year too.

cheers

W-Y

My point was you could have just opted out of the Apple emails.

budster101 · Sep 22, 2005, 09:46 PM

Groups is awesome.

BZ · Sep 24, 2005, 06:22 AM

As someone who has a full, powerful, dedicated server hosted at a world renown provider, I can tell you that the stuff that .Mac does cannot be easily replicated.

Easy:
- Free email (pop)
- Disk space
- Free website
- Host images

Hard:
- iPhoto Integration
- Syncing of iDisk, AddressBook, keychains, bookmarks, iCal and for me Transmit favorites
- Multiple Mac integration 2, 3, 4
- IMAP mail accounts with great online access
- Online access to bookmarks, address books, iCals

For me, since you can now get a family plan, it is worth it. Lots of integration, protection and security. Features galore.

BZ

Stogieman · Sep 24, 2005, 11:47 AM

I'm just glad they upped the iDisk/email storage to 1gb. Another $100 from my paycheck goes to Apple.

Kenneth · Sep 24, 2005, 08:09 PM

My membership is going to end on Oct. 1. However, I purchased the .Mac retail box last month online, which was cheaper. Now, I'm glad that Apple offers 1GB as standard. I have been an iTools/.Mac member since day 1.