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iDisk Utility for Windows XP

Posted by pudge on from the something-about-windows dept.

mister_tim writes " Apple has released an iDisk Utility for Windows XP. It could be useful under a mixed environment or those (like me) stuck using XP at work and such." Is there a way to mount iDisks on Linux, too?

4 of 38 comments (clear)

  1. You are missing why they did this... by Llywelyn · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They have exactly *zero* reason to release iTunes, Safari, or any number of other things for Windows. They have very good reasons for releasing a utility such as this.

    If they released iTunes w/ iPod support for windows, what does it gain them? There is already a company (SoundJam IIRC), producing software that interfaces with the iPod, so they aren't going to sell more of those, they aren't going to turn a profit from it if they give it away for free (they already sell a "windows" version of the iPod), and they aren't going to influence more people to buy macs (more the reverse, actually).

    If they release Safari, what does it gain them? They would be going into a situation where there is a monopoly on the browser and they have no quick way to fix it, and by providing an *outstanding* browser on the Mac, they give windows users one more reason to Switch.

    Finally, Safari and more and more of iTunes have been written in ObjC w/ Cocoa. This would make porting slightly difficult, since they would have to be rewritten almost from the ground up (Apple would not likely use OpenSTEP to make the switch just yet).

    Meanwhile, this utility gives a clear and very public way for Windows XP users to move their documents over to the Mac, easing the Switch when they do decide to make it. It is one more reason *to* make the switch: they are easing the transition. It also gives them the ability to take greater advantage of a .Mac account and give them more incentive to buy into that, which is just icing on the cake for Apple.

    Repeat to yourself over and over again until you burn it into your memory: Apple is a Hardware Company, Apple is a Hardware Company...

    --
    Integrate Keynote and LaTeX
    1. Re:You are missing why they did this... by trash+eighty · · Score: 3, Insightful

      another reason is to help Mac home users who use PCs at work and want to transfer files home using their iDisk.

    2. Re:You are missing why they did this... by Oculus+Habent · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That is an excellent consideration. Apple has long since dropped the floppy drive from their computer and most people don't miss it. The people most affected are the ones who work on small files at home or move small files between locations. They have been either constantly e-mailing documents, or may have purchased a floppy drive. The easier integration of a .Mac account into the Windows world makes both .Mac more appealing, and life easier for the small-file movers.

      --
      That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
  2. Re:Where's the Linux version? by @madeus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's open standard - WebDav.

    The volume is not propriatory in any way, it has not been 'embraced and extended' by Apple.

    This is a WebDav IETF working group:
    http://ftp.ics.uci.edu/pub/ietf/webdav/
    ( Actually there are no less than three seperate working groups working on WebDav!)

    There are also a couple of RFC's on WebDav:
    http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2518.txt
    http ://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3253.txt

    There are open source utilties for dealing with serving (mod_dav for Apache) and mounting (cadaver) WebDav volumes - it's fair to say that it's assumed Linux, BSD and other Unix users are knowlegeable enough to work out that they can go to freshmeat.net (or Google) and search for the term WebDav.

    You can find a list of WebDav related utilites at http://www.webdav.org/.

    It should also be pointed out that you don't even need this utility to mount iDisks under Microsoft Windows 98 or newer (or even Windows 95, with MS IE 4.0 IIRC) - the OS supports mounting FTP and WeDav volumes as mapped drives out of the box, this is mearly a slightly more user friendly interface (which will no doubt be a boon to Macintosh users who rarely interact with Microsoft Windows based PC's).

    So to answer the questio you posed:

    Where's the Linux version?

    If you can sucessfully do this:

    mount.davfs http://idisk.mac.com/username /idisk -u username -p password

    The answer is 'already compiled on your system'.