.Mac or iLife for simple web publishing?

Hi all, I currently have an iBook G4 12" laptop, which I have had for about 3 years now. I recently saw a friend of mine who created a fantastic-looking website using iWeb and I would like to try the same.

I only want to create a simple personal site that my friends can check out so I can describe about myself, my experiences during my time abroad, create some simple blog and show off the many photos I have taken.

I'm wondering whether it is better to go for .Mac or iLife. I currently don't have any storage space anywhere online yet where I can store my photos. I'm thinking more of .Mac since it comes with 1GB of storage space and is more focused on web publishing, and I don't think I really need the other applications offered with iLife. I might find Garageband useful in the future, but I may actually already have it bundled with my iBook, although I cannot remember properly.

I'm not too sure about the only 1-year subscription that comes with .Mac though. It would be nice if I could use iWeb to design my website, and then find some alternative space to upload it, including my photos. I'm quite a newbie when it comes to all this website publishing and online space stuff as I've never done it before so I apologise!

A .mac account may seem a bit pricey, but if you take into account all that you get with it, then it really isn't that bad. I comes out to about $8.25 a month and if used with iWeb, you have a rather bullet proof setup for doing a website, podcast, or many other things that work in harmony with your Mac computer.

iWeb is a very easy to use program that will let you set up a website that looks pretty good and is almost a no brainer to do with your .mac account. It also can be used to set up a website on any other server too.

My biggest gripe with .Mac is that it only comes with 1GB of space. Compared to other services, that's pretty low. I get more than that for free with such services as Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail. (I know at least Gmail allows you to use the space for whatever you want.)

If you're interested in actually using it for backup of files and want to post videos/pictures, that will fill up fast. You can purchase one additional GB of space, but it costs half the price of the membership! That's just highway robbery in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, I think the ease of use and interaction of iLife programs is great, but I won't get ripped off like that and I'm hoping for the day when other .Mac users feel the same and demand Apple to do something about it.

Until then, there are plenty of other services and great free software like Rapidweaver.

Well, I mostly want to create a webpage first, and not worry too much about storage space right now because I won't put everything on there.

To be clear, I could simply just use iWeb to design my webpage, and use some other service to host it right?

Hi tlitachi
I just looked at the Mac lessons 101 on the apple web page under support. iWeb looks ok for basic web pages. And yes you will need somewhere to host it. I think most ISP's wil allow you enough space to post a web page. Check with yours to see.