.mac

[Richard Lyon]

So, does anyone use it? If so, what do you think?

[Chris Waldrip]

I've been using it since the free mac.com email address days.

I've been pretty happy with it. THere are several services that can be replicated 'easily' for a geek, but they're already there for the regular user to take advantage of almost right out of the box.

[Terry Johnson]

I've been using since it came out. Like Chris, I've been pretty happy with it overall. I use it to host my webpages, for email, and to sync my computers, cell phone and iPod together. It's somewhat more expensive than other alternatives if you just want email and web hosting, but if you think you'll be using the sync function for multiple computers (like syncing your laptop and desktop) then it's pretty much worth the price. A backup of your current address book, calendar, Safari bookmarks, etc. resides on the Apple server, so if something happens to any (or all) of your computers, you just log into dot mac once you resolve the problem and sync and everything is back to normal.

I'm trying to get my family members to join so that we can start sharing photos and calendars -- there are still some features of dot mac that I'm not able to take advantage of.

Finally, if you like using iWeb to publish your webpages, blog, etc., I think you will get better results hosting them on your dot mac account than you will publishing them to another server.

[Michael Martin]

Ok .. Having been a .Mac user, here's my input --

1) I'm (not currently) a .Mac user (let it lapse).  Because I only had one Mac in the house, didnt think that the fee was worth it.  I had also hosted a domain through GLOBAT and was trying my hand at PHP and other bumbling self built website. (I have since let the GLOBAT domain lapse too).  In one instance I felt captive to the .Mac account and to Apple for providing some basic internet services.  In another, I felt that I was getting the same value out of Yahoo ($20/year for 2GB of Mail and the ability to get POP mail, and if I DONT pay the fee, I still have the Yahoo account but it's a bit smaller and I lose POP access -- would have to regress to web mail only) or GMAIL (free email and FREE POP access).  The only thing that is "grating" is that both Yahoo and Gmail arent really Mac Friendly -- they seem to be Mac "Tolerant".  But they do what I want.

2) Now that I have 4 mac's in the household and I'm thinking that my Mom will be getting one soon, the .MAC account(s), especially the FAMILY pack, seem more palatable.  Being able to share within our "Family Mac community" might make sense.

3) There are other communites out there that seem to welcome the .MAC crowd (http://dotmac.info/) and some that seem to be an ALTERATIVE to .MAC (Spymac => http://www.spymac.com/ .. $25/yr opposed to $99/yr for .MAC).

4) OTOH, why cant we just make up our OWN .MAC services ( http://www.m..._dotmac.html)  Especially since TIGER, there's a lot of services built into the OS that is somewhat provided by .MAC.   Of course, this would require a lot more control and maintenance to keep it up and running, but you may learn a lot about networking and system administration that way too.


All in all, for about $8.50 a month, you get a reliable email / mac friendly internet resource where you can integrate your mac well. Sure, you can piecemeal services together (use KodkaGallery.com for Photo printing and sharing, Yahoo/Gmail for email, there are some bookmark sharing / syncing sites you can go to, and there's places to post blogs / web pages too as well (blogger,etc)) -- however, it's not in one tidy little place that is a nicely done one stop shop and is mac friendly.

If you want it all in one place with as little headaches as possible, then it's worth it.  If you are just going to use it for email, then there are other cheaper alternatives that you can use on the net that the Mac integrates into just as well.

Just be aware that it's REALLY hard to divorce yourself from it if you ever decide to move on to something else or to go cold turkey from it.  AND .. I can think of no equal for the PC side.

Thoughts?

Mike