[Ti] CD writing software that's smart?

[Chris Olson]

On Jan 30, 2004, at 3:45 PM, David wrote:

> even suggest it is a nefarious plot on Apple's part tying the users to 
> a proprietary backup format. You ignored my post informing you the 
> backup format is only as proprietary as the Finder is. That's right - 
> Backup uses no proprietary backup format - the files are saved as 
> uncompressed Finder files.

That's exactly right.  In fact, they're not even Finder proprietary 
because you can install the iDisk Utility for Windows XP and retrieve 
your files out of your iDisk/Backup folder with no problems, and they 
work just fine on Windows.  Of course, backing up Safari preferences 
and stuff doesn't do you much good on Windows, so I imagine it could 
still be construed that Apple has a plan to lock you into some 
proprietary format.  But most of the complaining that the complainers 
do is pointless, because even the com.apple.safari.plist file is XML 
and not some proprietary data format.

The way I look at it, Backup is only part of the whole package.  iSync 
is just as important to me as Backup.  And my .mac email address is the 
only spam free email address I have.  And I like the way iPhoto, iDVD, 
and iMovie integrate with my .Mac iDisk space for sharing photos and 
movies with my friends.  The whole thing is a package, and trying to 
pull one thing out of the package, like Backup, and making it work as a 
standalone app sort of defeats the purpose of the whole experience.  
Those of us who use PowerBooks use them, for the most part, because 
they're portable.  Which means when we get to the office or home that 
we need an efficient way to sync or backup data with a desktop, that 
we've collected throughout the use of the portable.

That's the most convincing argument I can think of as to why Backup 
*should* be a part of .Mac
--
Chris