This is interesting. It's a challenge to produce a replacement for Apple's .Mac online services inspired by the contest earlier this year to boot Windows on the first Intel Macs (this was before Boot Camp for those of you who weren't around then). Apparently this guy Kent has decided that enough is enough; he wants a functional replica of .Mac and is willing to pay to get it. He's offering to match up to $10,000 in contributions to his site with the prize going to anyone who can:create 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.
Now there are several ways to get some of the .Mac services for free, from the geeky (and difficult) way, to the relatively easy way (MySync), to the Google-way. (The full rules to the challenge are here). Nonetheless, if this panned out it would be pretty cool for those of us with access to a WebDAV server (which would be necessary to duplicate the server-side functions). As someone who ditched his mac.com email address when Apple replaced the free iTools with the for-pay .mac I applaud this challenge. On the other hand, the $10,000 matching sounds a bit fishy to me. Kent claims that "to make it more interesting and give the prize a running start, [Kent's uncle agreed to] throw $10,000 into the prize pool." The fact that I can't even find Kent's last name on the site also sets my antennae twitching. What do you guys think?
[Via MacDevCenter]
[Edit: HS provides a link to a Macworld article with a bit more info on the guy behind the challenge]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-17-2006 @ 11:32AM
HS said...
http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/12/12/notmac/index.php
J. Kent Pepper according to Macworld.
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12-17-2006 @ 11:51AM
Phosphor said...
Registrant:
Foible.net
800 West 38th Street, Apt 2310
Austin, TX 78705
US
Domain name: NOTMACCHALLENGE.COM
Administrative Contact:
Schoenbaum, Alex alex@foible.net
800 West 38th Street, Apt 2310
Austin, TX 78705
US
+1.4154125167
Technical Contact:
Master, Host support@clickandname.com
9725 Datapoint Dr
Ste 100
San Antonio, TX 78229
US
+1.2107980105
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12-17-2006 @ 11:56AM
Ian Charles said...
Couldnt care less.
Reply
12-17-2006 @ 12:04PM
Colin Nederkoorn said...
I love challenges for money. Great to see others out there. I'll be donating my $10 :)
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12-18-2006 @ 12:26AM
Billifer said...
Money is money, but isn't the challenge -- and the reward of providing a notMac service to the entire Mac user base -- even more of a reward? Does it really matter about the money? I mean, sure, who couldn't use $10 grand, besides maybe Jobs or Gates, but the developer(s) who create the best products aren't doing it for the incentive of the money.
In this case, especially, given the nature of dotMac and how many Mac users don't use it because of its steep price tag, or its inability to provide the services they need, anyone providing an alternate service that is both free and more fully-featured is going to immediately be the hero of the Mac world. That would mean more to me as a developer than $10 grand would. (Of course I say that now, but when the rent is due, an article about me on TUAW won't pay the bills!)
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