Commercial Service Based On NotMac Challenge Solution

[kinghuang]

Hi!

My name is King Chung Huang. I'm a software developer in Calgary, Canada and marginally known for a few odd Keynote plugins. I'm currently working on a response to the notMac Challenge, and I expect to arrive at a solution that fits the challenge requirements in about a month's time. Working on the challenge has made it very obvious that deploying a fully functional notMac server is going to be beyond the skills of most users. With the need for valid SSL certificates, custom WebDAV properties to support Sync Services and iDisk and many other details, configuring and running a notMac server is not a trivial task. So, I have been investigating the possibility of setting up a paid service that will be based on my notMac solution for people that do not want to pay the full price of .Mac, but would still like to enjoy some of its benefits.

The service would initially provide the functionality required by the notMac challenge (mainly iDisk, Sync and Publishing), and may be extended if there is sufficient interest. I have already scoped out the cost of acquiring Xserves, an Xserve RAID, SAN equipment and high-bandwidth internet connectivity to get an idea of the startup and operational costs. Now, I'm trying to get a sense of the potential number of subscribers and what an acceptable price would be. I'd appreciate any feedback from the forums members here about this idea.

Thanks!