I am thinking about buying myself a mac. The problem is that I don't want to use my Mac with my AppleID because I am very afraid that it will sync with my other apple devices and I'm not a big fan of this at all. I also don't want to maintain a seperate AppleID. Do I really need an AppleID for macOS and which parts of macOS I cannot use without an AppleID ?
MacOS – Using macOS without an Apple ID
apple-idmacos
Related Solutions
uBar is a Windows-style taskbar for OS X that I developed. Be sure to set Window Grouping to Never in the preferences, and it will exactly replicate the behaviour you are looking for.
Update: According to developers/macrumors local sync is back in the latest beta of iTunes, and will hopefully be back in the next release as well.
Like you already said - being worried about security issues when you run the server locally is reasonable. You probably will never get your local server as safe as apple has made their iCloud Server. I honestly don't think your calender is so interesting that anybody would want to hack it, bur that's your decision after all.
I currently don't know of any app that syncs via usb. Sync mate doesn't work under mavericks, but they said an update would come in "winter" this year.
If you want to go local, I'd recommend using OS X server.
Best Answer
No, you do not absolutely need one.
It is mostly used for synchronizing with your other devices, which you’ve stated that you do not want anyways.
However it will still be most practical if you create a new Apple-ID to be used exclusively for that computer. If you do not, you’ll not be able to download software from the App Store.
Note that you do not have to enter that Apple-ID in any of the systems that would otherwise sync data. Your files, photos, calendars, mails, contacts, etc. will stay completely private and not synced with anything, even if you use an Apple-ID for purchasing or otherwise downloading software from Apple.