.mac backup?

[J5]

Hey all -
got an email last night promoting the new backup feature of .mac. I have no interest at all in .mac, but there was something in there that really rubbed me the wrong way.

As a trial member, you can use Backup to save files to iDisk. With a full .Mac membership, you'll also be able to back up files to CDs or DVDs — perfect for storing lots of large files, like your iPhoto library.

Ummm... ok... wtf? So wait... is Apple going to hook up 10 million cd burners on their servers for me(us), and then everytime I "backup" they will mail the cd's to us?

Of course not. This is by far the lamest thing I've heard from Apple (lately). I spend +$2000 on a mac with a cdr/dvdr and I have to pay a monthly fee to burn cd's?(I know, just burn like I have been) The big deal with backup as far as I can see is that it simply checks modification dates, and automatically backs up what has changed. Seems a trivial app to write, though I've just gotten into cocoa development. If anyone is interested in helping out, I think we could get our own open-source version of something like this?

Another rant - I buy the mac, I pay X a month, I buy the blank media, I sit and wait for it to burn, I put it in it's case and label it... What exactly would I be paying the monthly fee for at that point? I'm not about to start renting software. That's just a load of bs... errr ms.

J5

If anyone is interested and has some cocoa/mac programming experience, I'd be all for working up some open-source apps to compete with .whack. Ie - we could sit here and whine, or we could simply get off our arses and do something about it. Fighting Apple to get this stuff for free isn't going to happen, but they gave us all the dev tools we need already. So what's stopping us outside of lack of motivation?

[OmegaMan]

Originally posted by J5
Hey all -
got an email last night promoting the new backup feature of .mac. I have no interest at all in .mac, but there was something in there that really rubbed me the wrong way.

*shrugs his shoulders* Egh....no big deal about .mcProfit for me....just another email account to check.

I can't use the backup feature, until I upgrade to X.2.....but with a superdrive, I can do it locally, without incurring a charge, as my dsl provider has put bandwidth caps on.....grrr!

It's nice.....but no biggie for me.....I'll just humbly use the account....hehe

[J5]

Not quite sure what you mean -

*shrugs his shoulders* Egh....no big deal about .mcProfit for me....just another email account to check.

That's exactly how I see it, and it's an email account I can do without. My point was that backup sounds like a simple piece of software to write. It just doesn't seem worth $99 a year to me.

The backup software though to me seems like a good piece of software to have, yet after how many years of payment does it become not worth it?

So as I see it, we (maybe just me?) have 3 options:

1) whine about it - not doing anybody any good

2) Suck it up, and pay the fees. - in the words of G. Bush the first - "not gonna do it.."

3) Suck it up, and write software on our own that does the same thing, and give it away for free.

I'm going with number 3! I want to learn Cocoa anyway. I've been playing with it a bit, but haven't thought of a piece of software I'd want to write to hone my skills. Seems like this would be a fun and useful app to get started on.

J5

[plastic]

I am wondering what Apple is really up to with all these weird offerings... are they that strapped for cash?

The whole email quoted does not make sense at all... backup? Huh?

[J5]

Hey Plastic -
Here's a link for ya'

http://www.mac.com/1/iTour/tour_backup.html

And good point - are they that strapped for cash!? It's so weird. Everytime they release something cool (jaguar, and all it's goodness) - I get all happy. Then there is always something that turns me right around. Not that I'm about to "switch" mind you, but none the less... it's the epitomy of a "love/hate" relationship!

Check out the link. .whack indeed.

J5

[plastic]

I tried reading the ad right side up, on my side, tilted my head to both sides, while lying down, and STILL, I don't see the reason why I must part with THAT MUCH money to get that account.

Drag and drop and click and burn... Apple style. What is so hard about that? I have backed up almost every small file (project files) onto CD blanks and larger files onto Firewire HDD/ DVD-R. Why would I spend $99/year for this?

Maybe I am slow, but can someone explain this service to me like a four year old? I don't see the logic in this altogether.

Maybe Apple has a reason but I sure don't see it now.

[Snowball]

It's a very good idea to make a simple, free Backup utility as a competitor to Apple's Backup.
Why? Because 1, a backup program is the most basic of utilities every OS should include, and 2, I, along with many other Mac users, am especially annoyed by Apple's recent changes in business policy*: writing a free backup program that is a viable replacement to their $99 version tells Apple that we won't follow their business plan if it's not in our best interest. People simply will not pay for what they can get elsewhere for free, even if it comes from Apple. I have a strong feeling that most Mac users' brand loyalty is simply not strong enough to resist price differences such as one of .Macs magnitude, and this is where a lot of the anger over .Mac stems from. People don't want to move away from Apple, but .Mac is a real slap in the face from our friendly old Apple of pre-July 17th.
But I digress...

A utility like this would be incentive for Apple to make .Mac actually worth $99 by adding more features or substantially improving the old ones. Apple is typically the leader in innovation, but things like their lack of OS-installed backup utility truly are a sore spot. Windows 95 and every version after came with some version of a free, MS supported, backup program, (maybe it started with Win3.1, I'm not sure) as a system accessory. It's inexcusable that Apple markets OS X as such an advanced OS but doesn't include such a simple feature that facilitates such an important task. (I'm not much of a UNIX person but I suspect there is some kind of CLI way of backing up...so maybe Apple does indirectly include one, but of course it is not accessible to most OS X users, because they don't know how to CLI their way around) Frankly speaking, their $99 version is too little, too late when looking at the competition, which is exactly what Switchers are doing.

Anyway, I've rambled on for long enough...
If you (J5) did something like this, I would be happy to help out as long as a replacement was freeware (or opensourced, whatever). The least we could do is give a GUI to the UNIX backup program (if one exists that is), hopefully however we could do all that Apple's Backup does and more - Apple's version is very simple so it wouldn't be that difficult to do. Heck, we could even backup to an iDisk, it's not a propietary system!

*One example of Apple's new moves: You need an active internet connection just to run Backup, even though you may just want to burn a CD on the go in a laptop ! that is particulary offensive IMHO, very much like MS...

[J5]

Plastic -
I couldn't explain it to myself, let alone a 4yr. old. It literally makes no sense at all. At first, I was thinking:

"Oh.. cool. I'm gonna back up my 30gig drive tonight to my idisk...so that I can reformat and do a clean install without using up a ton of cd's..."

That's what drove me to the site, to see if there was a limit to how much space I had. Of course there was. But even if I had a full membership, 200mb isn't going to cut it for backup purposes. I've got at least 5gigs of files I'd have to backup, and that doesn't include software.

Yep.. you said it. drag.drop. burn. That's it. The only thing I can see that Apple is giving you for your annual fee is a nice piece of software to optimize your backups. Meaning it keeps a record of what you backed up last time. Then, next time you backup, it compares each file's modification date to the list of previously backed up files, and backs up only the stuff that has changed. Great idea! But not at that price. Maybe if it was an addon for like $200 or something...maybe. I don't know if I'd pay that still, but if Apple's hardup for cash, all they gotta do is ask! Don't try to take advantage of people who don't know any better! Release a 1.25ghz dp g4 with a useable amount of ram(at least 512mb!, on ONE chip) for under $2000. I'll buy 2! That's equal to 40 years of .mac membership. Of course, minus their costs, it's not quite so much, but it's more money (100% more) than they'll see from me by way of .mac services.


Again - are there any mac developers here who want to help a newbie learn a bit, and at the same time produce some cool mac free-wares? You can find me for a limited time at:
jrobinso@mac.com
or a more permanent location:
jrobinso@nycap.rr.com

J5