Filed under: Internet Tools, Open Source
notMac Challenge winner declared
As you may recall the notMac Challenge was a contest to produce a free method to duplicate most of the functionality of Apple's .mac, with the winner receiving upwards of $8k from various contributors. A few days ago we mentioned that Ben Spinks had posted a possible solution and that it had been released for testing. Yesterday the Challenge sponsor declared that the Ben had in fact won the challenge and would be receiving the prize. As per the rules of the contest Ben's solution, based on his commercial cross-platform CrushFTP product, will be released as open source freeware. A SourceForge repository has already been set up, and the notMac binary is available for download (dmg link).Some loose ends still remain to be tidied up (particularly in documentation and installation), but Ben's solution "appears to be functioning perfectly for most users." So if you have a spare Mac to run as a server, this looks like it could be a great way to get most of the .mac functionality without forking over the cash to Apple.
Thanks ed!
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Mo said 7:26PM on 10-02-2007
Small correction: “open source” and “freeware” are two completely different things. To be completely pedantic, it's “freely-available under the terms of the three-clause BSD-style license”.
Either way, though, congratulations to Ben! Hopefully now that it's open we can get it ported to WebDAV servers that don't require running a JVM :)
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Chris said 7:35PM on 10-02-2007
Now - someone just needs to figure out how to get notMac to run on a hacked AppleTV - that'll be the ultimate solution because unlike some with lavish amounts of money to throw at a dedicated server someplace, a $449 AppleTV is much more affordable! :)
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J.G. said 7:40PM on 10-02-2007
Sweet, for the mere cost of another Mac, I can have a poor imitation of .Mac!
Thanks, but I'll gladly spend my $99/yr for a far superior solution.
You get what you pay for.
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Cycomachead said 7:40PM on 10-02-2007
And I thought I'd have to make a server the long and hard way (which would be fun, but I don't have time)
Thanx and congrats on the win.
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James said 7:41PM on 10-02-2007
"because unlike some with lavish amounts of money to throw at a dedicated server someplace"
Who needs to do that? My server for the past 2 years has been a blue & white G3 450 with a gig of ram and 10.4 Server to host my domain. It's been a workhorse.
I've just recently replaced it with a G4 Cube (450) for $250.
People don't realize that servers spend 99% of their time doing absolutely nothing. You really don't need something extravagant as a server. Any old mac will do, as long as it can hold enough ram. (I wouldn't go any older than a B&W G3. For Leopard, I'd say a decent G4 tower should be just fine)
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Brent said 7:45PM on 10-02-2007
With the Mac mini, it doesn't take a lot of money to get a colocated Mac server going.
http://www.macminicolo.net
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steven said 7:57PM on 10-02-2007
This will not be usefull more 90% of mac users. Until they come up with a solution that doesnt need a server or someone ports the server software to linux
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punkassjim said 8:00PM on 10-02-2007
the one thing that absolutely can't be replicated is the @mac.com address. Honestly, that's the whole reason I'll be sticking with .Mac for pretty much ever.
I may have changed phone numbers a dozen times since college, but my email address will always stay the same, for as long as I can manage it. Free would be nice, but honestly, I'd rather have that constant line of communication with folks I've known forever.
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VanillaSpice said 8:47PM on 10-02-2007
@Mo - the BSD licence used is an open-source licence (and is OSI approved), so it is indeed both free and open-source, pedantic or not!
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Senator K said 8:57PM on 10-02-2007
My .Mac membership is expiring in 27 days and this time I will not be renewing. Everything .Mac has to offer (even with this year's updates) can now be replicated for free. This new NotMac winner just puts the cherry on top of the sundae:
IMAP Mail: Fastmail.fm for a fraction of the cost.
Backup: soon to be replaced by Time Machine
Sync: NotMac winner
Picture Gallery / Groups: Facebook
Online bookmarks: Del.icio.us + Safarilicious
10GB iDisk: I never filled up more than 500MB of my iDisk, and there's plenty of free or low cost alternatives out there.
When I first signed up for .Mac, a lot of the features were good and tailored for new users. But $400 later I think it's time to upgrade to something cheaper and more advanced.
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vlad Gorshkov said 4:54PM on 10-14-2007
ok, well I wonder where GMail gets its money? Last time I've checked google's stock was like $500. Or flicker.....or other "free" services.
I rather pay $99...Nothing beats .Mac Galleries or iWeb's Pages.
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Maxwell said 10:37PM on 10-02-2007
Hear, hear for the Mac Mini. I got mine (used - er, I mean conscientiously recycled) on eBay for $220 and set it up as a server last week. NotMac timing could not be better.
If you want to take the same path, this was a helpful series for me:
http://www.freemacblog.com/category/server-video-series/
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Maxwell said 11:07PM on 10-02-2007
By the way, the installer download link at the top of the page that the TUAW link above goes to (whew!) has a typo, an uncapitalized "n". Here is a working link to download the installer:
http://www.notmacchallenge.com/NotMac.dmg
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artifex said 12:00AM on 10-03-2007
Maxwell, was yours a G4 or an Intel? If it was in Intel, man, my G4 Mini isn't worth selling any more, I might as well make it do more server stuff :)
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Mo said 3:23AM on 10-03-2007
@VanillaSpice: Yes, it's free, but it's not *freeware*—freeware is something completely different to open source (generally meaning “no source or redistribution rights, but doesn't cost anything”)
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Stef said 3:23AM on 10-03-2007
Like many others, I don't have a spare Mac laying around and am not planning to buy one, to run 24 hours a day, just for the sake of syncing my Addressbook and Bookmarks...
I would strongly urge to find a solution via one's web domain server. I think there are far more people who are maintaing a personal website, and thus have surely some space left on their host server... THAT would be solution!!
Lean Back and Relax - Enjoy some Nature Photography
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Stef said 3:26AM on 10-03-2007
Tse.... how does it work with the URL Links?! Second try, sorry...
Lean Back and Relax - Enjoy some Nature Photography:
http://photoblog.la-famille-schwarzer.de/
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davidp said 6:01AM on 10-03-2007
Well, I like the goal of this project, and I'm happy to see that someone won the grand prize.
However, I do have a problem ; don't take this the wrong way, it probably isn't related, but I think it's important to signal it.
The AppleShare server (AFS) on my mac mini failed yesterday, just one day after I tried out notMac. I don't know if it's really related, but it's a very serious failure that I was only able to repair by restoring a previous backup, so be really cautious...
Backup your data before trying out notMac, and check that the Apple File Sharing component still works after trying.
Again, notMac may not be the cause of this failure ; I tried auto-syncing my (real, apple) iDrive the same day, and I did other stuff too.
Cheers,
David.
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Billy K said 9:33AM on 10-03-2007
Well, I had a solution for this "contest" long ago. You just needed to have a spare server farm, a team of Arctic sled Dogs and 2 dozen Google Engineers at your disposal.
I call shenanigans.
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LD said 12:04PM on 10-03-2007
I don't think most people will run their own server. But I think some enterprising minds (probably the dude who started the contest) will offer commercial .Mac alternatives for a reasonable price.
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