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milfli · Jul 16, 2004, 06:22 PM

Whatever happened to the "Home on iPod" feature that was going to be part of OS X 10.3?

http://www.appleinsider.com/news.php?id=253

Further proof the feature was going to be there (it was once on the Panther Features Page)

http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2003/...08183849.shtml

120db · Jul 16, 2004, 07:18 PM

I totally forgot about this, but I'd still love it if they could get it right. Like some people said in the discussion on appleinsider, it would have to let you choose to exclude some files since I, and I imagine many others, don't have much room left on my ipod. it would be really cool though to have ti always up to date without having to resort to home brewed solutions such as rsync and cron, etc...hopefully it comes sometime.

milfli · Jul 16, 2004, 07:34 PM

The article dated back when 10.3.1 or .2 came out said 10.3.5 might be when it actually got finallized.

It got me to thinking consider that the new iPod has got to be just around the corner...Probably around the start of the school year...

Maybe have it a sell for the teachers here you can take your class with you were ever you go.

Millennium · Jul 16, 2004, 07:48 PM

You can put your home directory on an iPod and mount it fine; there is no good interface for it, but it can be done.

You will (hopefully) never be able to use this to carry login information around, however. The security implications are staggering, way beyond any of the grand blunders Microsoft has made.

milfli · 08:52 PM

Security is just something ppl will bypass

Edit sorry bad text flow...add word "unless"

They can do this with options like allow iPod Logins in the Security Sys Pane. Include a Cert even?

They can also set it up so that you don't have access to the system just to the contents of your HD.

Applications will launch etc. but you won't be able to make changes to thier HD or copy data from the main computer make sense better sense now?

Thoughts?

Make it sorta like netbooting? Except mount the applications directory as Read Only partition.

hyperb0le · Jul 16, 2004, 10:32 PM

The main issue is that iPod hard drives were not made to spin constantly. That is why most people recommend that you do not leave you iPod mounted all the time. That is said to be the main reason Apple pulled the "Home on iPod" feature.

nbnz · Jul 16, 2004, 11:26 PM

Originally posted by hyperb0le:
The main issue is that iPod hard drives were not made to spin constantly. That is why most people recommend that you do not leave you iPod mounted all the time. That is said to be the main reason Apple pulled the "Home on iPod" feature.

that's understandable, but why pull the whole thing, why not make it "Home on External Hard Drive except iPod"? Like a Lacie PocketDrive or something.

hyperb0le · Jul 17, 2004, 12:42 AM

Originally posted by nbnz:
that's understandable, but why pull the whole thing, why not make it "Home on External Hard Drive except iPod"? Like a Lacie PocketDrive or something.

That's probably because of the security issues mentioned here, plus the fact that Apple tends to only add major features like that if they have a product to take advantage of it

iDriveX · Jul 17, 2004, 01:32 AM

Or maybe it's because Apple is waiting for a larger solid state iPod hard drive...

milfli · Jul 17, 2004, 03:05 PM

Just wundering?

Do you think my solutions to the security problem are good or just stupid?

Just out of morrib courosity?

Randman · Jul 17, 2004, 03:19 PM

The upcoming System Migration may have similar features, though CCC works well enough already.

Graymalkin · Jul 17, 2004, 05:27 PM

Allowing only limited access to a Home on iPod user would annoy everyone who wanted to use their iPod as a portable home directory between two computers they owned. It might work out fine if you used the feature on a lab computer or a computer at the office or something. To enable a wholly portable user account OSX would need to keep a NetInfo database on the removable drive and trust it to authenticate users. Simply using a portable drive as a home directory however is not too difficult to set up. That can be done pretty easily through NetInfo. I wouldn't recommend doing this on an iPod however since they're not designed to have their disks spinning all the time.

Cipher13 · Jul 20, 2004, 07:38 AM

The iPod HD couldn't handle it. It'd get torn top pieces.

The iPod isn't well ventilated enough to cool a constantly spinning hard drive.

It would be incredibly slow.

They're too small (capacity).

workerbee · Jul 20, 2004, 07:55 AM

Originally posted by hyperb0le:
plus the fact that Apple tends to only add major features like that if they have a product to take advantage of it

Now that you mention it... I think you're right. I simply never noticed Apple doing this, being used to the way Adobe / M$ / Macromedia et. al. handle software upgrades (they all, of course, would never ever even think of spreading new useful features on paid upgrades. Never.

TimmyDee51 · Jul 20, 2004, 08:36 AM

milfli, if you're interested in some of the debate about the security of the feature, take a look over here. I'm not saying we can't discuss it here, just that you may find it interesting.

prutz11 · Jul 20, 2004, 08:45 AM

2 things...

1. With Duke giving away all the iPods to freshman maybe home on iPod will make a come back.

2. Do you guys remember those Sun terminals where each user had a card that they would carry with them. When you got to a terminal you would slide your card through. The terminal would then access your personalized account. Worked kinda like home on iPod, but it was server based. Wonder what security provisions Sun's system used?

Graymalkin · Jul 20, 2004, 04:34 PM

Sun still sells their thin clients. They're basically little computers that run VNC. You're logged into the server system "locally" and your GUI is simply exported to whatever terminal you're setting at. The difference between Sun terminals and typical X terminals is you can move your session between different terminals. The session state is maintained on the server so the display can be moved all over the place. The card-based authentication is really only for accessing your exported display at a particular terminal.

Why do people obsess over Home of iPod? When you've got your home on your iPod you've got all of your preferences on it. Firing up a program or changing a preference means the iPod's drive has to spin up. Saving large files or simply doing a lot of disk work will keep the drive spun and possibly overheat your iPod. If you really want your files accessible on your iPod run a synchronization or backup app with your iPod as a target drive. A simple shell script can keep your Home folder mirrored on your iPod.