The ultimate "i"Pod

[C-Mezak]

Hey all,

Just wanted to throw something out there. I don't know if this idea is technically feasible yet, and Im sure that there's not a huge market for it yet, but wouldnt it be cool . . .

If Apple made an ipod-like device that stored your entire home folder? Perhaps you could have the option to exclude some large files like movies, but essentially this would let you log into your account on any installation of macosx on any computer.

I think that this is the direction computing will eventually go. As hardware becomes easier to make and thus more ubiquitous, we'll stop lugging around display and input devices and just carry our data alone. To begin with, things like applications could be accessed via the internet (or the corresponding future network) because you as a user could be recognized as having purchased a lisence to use them. Eventually, most of your data could be accessed the same way. We could be anywhere at all with our data on call.

I didn't know that was going to get so spectuative. If I read much sci fi I would probably know of plenty of more elaborate and detailed speculations on similar technological futures.

Yup
Charlie

 

[jkaz]

i think you can already do this

think of your ipod as a portable hard drive, which it is, then install whatever version you have as os x, then maybe do a target disk mode

at start up.

can someone elaborate ??

 

[SiliconAddict]

Its called Home on the iPod and its been a rumored feature of OS X. It was supposedly supost to ship with Panther but didn't for unknown reasons. I personally wouldn't want my home folder stored on the iPod. Replicated? Sure. NOT stored. I've seen and read of too many instances of an iPod's hard drive crashing to even take a slight chance that my files might be lost. That and my My Docs folder on my computer is already 4GB and climbing. I have 39GB of iTunes tracks. In the end I wouldn't have room even if they did come out with a 60GB iPod.

 

[allroy]

you can already do that...

in some networked enviornments. Everything resides on the server and whenever you log into one of the client machines you're given permission to access your area on the server. Those files can be anything, programs, music, email. It's pretty much all done through Active Directory.

 

[SiliconAddict]

in some networked enviornments. Everything resides on the server and whenever you log into one of the client machines you're given permission to access your area on the server. Those files can be anything, programs, music, email. It's pretty much all done through Active Directory.

It's called a roaming profile and its totally different from what we are talking here. First off you need a server to manage the profile. RP's have been around since the early days of Windows NT Server. (Don't know about *nix.) Secondly it requires a net connection not only to the net but the network the server resides which is a PITA.
What we are talking here is a highly portable device that stores your home directory and profile that allows you to hook the device up to any OS X Panther or later OS and use the profile as if you were sitting in front of your own computer. This idea is hardly new but AFAIK it hasn't been implemented anywhere...yet.
I pretty sure I know why Apple pulled the feature from Panther. If they do this its got to be done right. Because if done wrong they could have a disaster worse then the whole filevault issues the occurred when Panther debuted. There has to be some fairly comprehensive replication and verification processes in place to make DAMN sure that nothing goes wrong. Along with a-typical issues that may arise. Example: What happens when the hard drive is disconnected from the temp host computer and loses the home dir? What happens when the system loses power all of a sudden? What happens when an OSX system pulls a Kernel dump? Etc. Etc. Etc.

 

[t300]

You can already do this...Check out this great little article!

http://www.engadget.com/entry/8817137592535661/

 

[Jo-Kun]

my HOME folder is bigger than the biggest iPod ;-)

 

[Toe]

Howzabout "Home on .Mac?"

They have everything they need for that except for
1. A fast enough internet
2. Enough space in .Mac accounts to be useful

I've tried to set my office up with, essentially, Home on Xserve, but it is a rather difficult proposition. It theoretically works just fine, but it gets much, much more difficult when you introduce protable computers into the mix.

Hopefully Apple is working doggedly on the concept of a highly portable, highly accessible Home folder. But I'm not sure how they could do it effectively on a consumer scale with today's technologies.