The End of .Mac and Google Apps?

mattnyc99 writes "In his weekly tech column for Popular Mechanics, Glenn Derene predicts that everyone will have a home server to network their house within 10 years—rendering Apple's .Mac accounts and Google's productivity software useless. As prices for products like HP's MediaSmart Server drop and as processing power becomes more pervasive, Derene says, 'you'll ultimately need a centralized server—that high-powered traffic cop—to coordinate the non-stop exchange of information between your new multitude of devices.'"

Comments

that's moronic

[lthown]

I have a server at home, with over a TB of storage. I still use most of google's apps, especially Gmail.

Re:that's moronic

[senatorpjt]

I run servers on my cable modem, but I still use gmail for the email address I gave my boss, because their servers are more reliable than mine.

Even if people have these servers, they probably won't have redundant power supplies, access to multiple backbones, automatic backup, or uptime guarantees from the ISP.

doubtful

[somelucky]

Even in the future the main problem with this setup is reliablity. I have had a server in my home doing these functions for many years. However I would never rely upon it to be the same as a real internet server providing these services. When the power goes out at home, most of the time it will stay down until I get back home. I do agree that in the future we may not have to pay a premium to get 'business class' type access that we do today.

Assertions Straight out of his ass

[blantonl]

Let me be the first to say that Glenn literally pulled this assertion straight out of his ass.

No one can argue against home media servers driving innovation into the household, especially around automation and media management - but to displace software as a service? GoogleApps? I don't even in the slightest see where these two things correlate.

GoogleApps and .MAC (the two examples citied) not only provide value as a collaboration platform, but they are also extremely well designed, and cost effective for the business community. If anyone thinks that I'm going to plunk down 2K on an HP Media Server, and all the sudden declare my independence from Software as Service for the business purposes... well... you get the point - it's utter BS.

Glenn literally did 2 things.

1. Plugged HP's products (successfully)
2. Showed how absolutely absurd some columists can be (successfully)

But Seriously

[joe_n_bloe]

Why do I want an extra "hub" computer in my house when it's already a pain in the ass to keep a WEP-enabled wireless router working, and I actually know what I'm doing.

I'd rather let the guys at Google provide my word processor without my having to find room for another plug in my power strip. I've had enough DIY in my life. But y'all feel free.

Re:Not web based...

[tomhudson]

su root
vi /etc/apache2.conf
i
listen 8000
listen 8080
:wq
apache2ctl restart

There - fixed it for ya.

now type http://examplehomeserver.com:8000/ or http://examplehomeserver.com:8080/

BTW - The article is wrong - not everyone will be running a home server in 10 years. Most people don't want to be bothered, and won't want to spend the extra $$$ on electricity, etc. Cheaper and easier to just have one family member/friend run a linux/bsd box and offer user accounts with ssh, sftp, and ~usr/public_html access (or symlink /home/user/public_html /htdocs/user for people who can't figure out how to type a tilde.

"You need to type a tilde before your user name in the url."
"A what?"
"A tilde."
"I don't have a tilt key on my keyboard."
"Not tilt - tilde!"
"What's a tilde?"
"That squiggly line thingee."
"Oh, okay." ... pause ... I can't find it.
"The one next to the one."
"The one next to which key?"
"The one."
"I've got over a hundred keys ... which one?"
"The one."
"... yeah, sure ... quit pulling my leg - there's really no such thing as a tilt key, is there? This is a joke, like the "any" key."
(- click - account deleted)