Subscription Changes for Computer Backup • Hacker News Board

Re: Subscription Changes for Computer Backup

#21

Post by ahnick » Tue, Jul 13, 2021, 4:13 PM UTC

eyeball wrote: post #8

Since this thread might attract people who know … I’m looking at getting a NAS for home backup to get my data out of cloud services. Is synology still a good option for this? I’ve read that they are starting to engage in some anti-user behaviors like restricting the types of drives that can be used with their gear.

I would assemble your own using FreeNAS/TrueNAS or buy a TrueNAS system that is already built for you. Having a full FreeBSD based system with modern ZFS is much more robust and does not come with any restrictions.

Re: Subscription Changes for Computer Backup

#22

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jul 13, 2021, 4:15 PM UTC

Laminary wrote: post #7

Working in video production, I know there are a lot of videographers and photographers "abusing" the unlimited nature of this service. It's not my business how BackBlaze does things, or if the usage falls within their acceptable use policy, but I see so many in my industry brag about the insanely cheap rates BackBlaze offers on their computer backup. From my armchair, it seems like a bunch of personal users subsidize…

[deleted]

Re: Subscription Changes for Computer Backup

#23

Post by Spooky23 » Tue, Jul 13, 2021, 4:17 PM UTC

karmakaze wrote: post #2

Does anyone have experience using this to sync between a Windows PC and a Mac? I've tried using OneDrive and it's pretty bad. I basically keep it disabled until I remember, "hey I haven't synced in a while, turn it on until complete, then turn off again."

OneDrive and Google Drive are similar and fail in similar ways, I think because they look at files and not blocks. A lot of the goofy OneDrive gotchas have been resolved, but I don’t trust it for backup.

Dropbox is king of sync, especially if you are on the same LAN as it syncs locally. That said, Dropbox has a long-term strategy of alienating their customers through annoying upsell and doing weird stuff with clients.

Personally, I went the old school route and setup a file server. I bought a surplus HP Thin Client on EBay and stuck a big SSD in it… it’s a silent, low power device that I can backup with standard Unix tools. I think the device was $50 and the drive $189 on Black Friday.

Re: Subscription Changes for Computer Backup

#24

Post by kube-system » Tue, Jul 13, 2021, 4:22 PM UTC

Laminary wrote: post #7

Working in video production, I know there are a lot of videographers and photographers "abusing" the unlimited nature of this service. It's not my business how BackBlaze does things, or if the usage falls within their acceptable use policy, but I see so many in my industry brag about the insanely cheap rates BackBlaze offers on their computer backup. From my armchair, it seems like a bunch of personal users subsidize…

Maybe the marketing value of being “truly unlimited” outweighs the cost of the abuse? There are a good number of people who value the lack of cognitive load of fine print, even if they’re paying more for it.

Re: Subscription Changes for Computer Backup

#25

Post by chomp » Tue, Jul 13, 2021, 4:22 PM UTC

bakugo wrote: post #20

vmlinuz wrote: post #14

I know it sounds like a broken MP3, but I don't see "support for Linux on non-servers" on that list of improvements - apparently because they still think only Linux users have large hard drives...

It's just not as easy to stop abuse on Linux, people would find a way to backup their 50TB NAS on it.

I absolutely know people who not use it in good faith. Same people that crammed many terabytes into Amazon Drive back when it was unlimited so that they could "back up their plex server".

Re: Subscription Changes for Computer Backup

#26

Post by jpalomaki » Tue, Jul 13, 2021, 4:23 PM UTC

I appreciate how this blog entry puts the most important thing out first - the fact that prices are increasing. And only then goes to justify why customers should be still happy.

Re: Subscription Changes for Computer Backup

#27

Post by cortesoft » Tue, Jul 13, 2021, 4:23 PM UTC

Laminary wrote: post #7

Working in video production, I know there are a lot of videographers and photographers "abusing" the unlimited nature of this service. It's not my business how BackBlaze does things, or if the usage falls within their acceptable use policy, but I see so many in my industry brag about the insanely cheap rates BackBlaze offers on their computer backup. From my armchair, it seems like a bunch of personal users subsidize…

There is probably just not enough of those types of users to really change the calculus for Backblaze.

Re: Subscription Changes for Computer Backup

#28

Post by interestica » Tue, Jul 13, 2021, 4:25 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #9

karmakaze wrote: post #2

Does anyone have experience using this to sync between a Windows PC and a Mac? I've tried using OneDrive and it's pretty bad. I basically keep it disabled until I remember, "hey I haven't synced in a while, turn it on until complete, then turn off again."

It's backup, not sync. Your basic consumer choices for cloud-based sync are OneDrive, Google Drive, or DropBox. I prefer Google Drive now that I can keep all my files in the cloud and download/cache on demand, rather than keep it synced -- this way I get a usable 2TB disk rather than being limited to my laptop's 256GB storage. Google announced a new unified app yesterday actually: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021…

Does HN have something against Mega? It seems like it would fall more in line. It even has a CLI.

Re: Subscription Changes for Computer Backup

#29

Post by jscheel » Tue, Jul 13, 2021, 4:25 PM UTC

The first improved feature they tout as part of their rational for the price increase is "extended version history." I feel like this is quite a bit mis-leading, as you pay extra for this feature. I got a Backblaze price increase about 1.5 years ago, then I upgraded my version history, and now I get another price increase. I understand the need to increase prices, but I'm also starting to feel a bit nickel-and-dimed here.

Also, they claim that they have "optimized the app to be kinder to your computer." Am I the only one that find the opposite to be true? I've tuned my exclusion lists pretty heavily, but bzserv is constantly using more and more cpu on my machine.

Re: Subscription Changes for Computer Backup

#30

Post by Isthatablackgsd » Tue, Jul 13, 2021, 4:28 PM UTC

karmakaze wrote: post #2

Does anyone have experience using this to sync between a Windows PC and a Mac? I've tried using OneDrive and it's pretty bad. I basically keep it disabled until I remember, "hey I haven't synced in a while, turn it on until complete, then turn off again."

If you using OneDrive as a backup, it is not designed for that. You need to use the service that are specialized for backups which BackBlaze is the right product for it. OneDrive is mainly a online storage/vault with syncing capabilities. If you have a thousands of file to backup to OneDrive, you will have a problem since OneDrive need to upload everything that you want to backup to. Imagine 500,000 files that OneDrive have to upload for the backup, that will take a while. Their upload speed is not that great which is why they are not designed for backup.