As a reader of this blog, you're probably a Mac user. And if you're a Mac user with any self-respect you're probably a former dotMac subscriber. When Apple launched iTools, it was a great offering. As it became dotMac in mid-2002, it got better iDisk was a fresh way to access your data over the Internet, Homepage was easier to use for photo gallery creation than anything else around, and, most importantly, you got a swanky @mac.com address for totally free.
Apple raised the bar in Sept. 2002 by taking its free offering, adding almost no features, changing the name and then charging $99 a year for it. Well, actually it sucked. In one move, Apple set free millions of Mac users. Some jumped ship right away, some suffered through a few years of inconsistent access and overpriced features, but virtually all moved on. For me, I finally had the strength to tell Apple no when Google launched GMail in April 2004. It's useful, just not $99 a year useful. I would have stayed with dotMac forever if it were $19.99 a year.
But there are a lot of things about dotMac that have kept it tempting – it's easy, it's integrated into iLife and Apple makes virtually of its applications work better if you're a dotMac member. Kent Pepper, who has paid for five, count 'em five years worth of dotMac, has had enough. He's putting up a ton of money to develop a full-featured, easy-to-use, out-of-the-box replacement for dotMac.
Folks, get ready for notMac. We could all be the beneficiaries – and someone out there's going to make some cold, hard cash.
Inspired by the XP on Mac challenge that successfully led to the creation of the XOM bootloader, Pepper is matching the first $10,000 donated toward the grand prize for whoever makes the winning notMac software suite. It's actually a pretty daunting task – anywhere in Mac OS X that a dotMac feature appears, there needs to be a notMac replacement. A successful product would make it so that when you click on the iDisk icon, it seamlessly launches a stand-in for the function that looks and feels and functions as well or better as Apple's commercial version.
Then manage the same thing for iWeb, iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand and others. It's pretty crazy and audacious, but it's also great. Obviously, anything that requires actually having a Web account with Apple wouldn't be covered. But synced data, Mail.app treating your IMAP account like a real @mac.com address – it's totally nuts. But if it could be done – just think of the possibilities! If you recall, XP on Mac ultimately created a working solution and forced Apple's hand on Boot Camp. If this goes right, it could force Apple to do something really great with dotMac itself.
To find out more, be sure to read the official rules and visit the forums. It's a long way to go before anyone even has a broken solution, so get involved early if you think you've got the chops to win or want to throw some money into the pot.
