[Ti] CD writing software that's smart?

[Chris Olson]

On Jan 29, 2004, at 3:05 PM, Robert Nicholson wrote:

> A lot of people are often uncomfortable using a proprietory backup 
> format simply because it limits the platform that restores can be 
> performed on.

> For some people it's not outrageous to think that they may want to 
> recover from either linux or windows in the future.

It's no problem if you care to look into it instead of automatically 
*assuming* there's some sort of proprietary "lockin" with it.  FYI, 
.Mac works with Windows XP with the Windows .Mac client.  If you use 
linux, you're on your own, just like lots of other things related to 
linux, from hardware support to software, so you'll have to "figure it 
out".

But your "concerns" are really non-issues.  .Mac uses WebDAV and other 
standard protocols to do it's communications and data storage.  It 
seems you have a huge problem with it in principle.  So don't use it.  
Make ISO's of your stuff and burn it to CD's or DVD's.  Buy a FireWire 
drive and back it up on that.  Rsync all your stuff to your favorite 
linux box.  Whatever.  Just *don't* use .Mac.

You must understand that Backup is part of the .Mac package.  It's 
designed around convenience, and it's a perk of being a Mac user with a 
.Mac subscription.  Show me where else you can get all .Mac offers for 
$8.33/month?  I would guess that 99.9% of people who use it don't worry 
about restoring to Windows or Linux, because we're Mac users, and would 
quit using computers before we'd switch to either of those other two 
alternatives.

So I'd say, based on your concerns, don't use it.  Invent your own 
system.  Of course, if your house burns down and your backup CD's and 
computer get burned up, then your data is gone anyway.  But at least it 
wasn't stored in some proprietary non-free .Mac service.  Right?
--
Chris