161–170 of 249 posts
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>Maybe there will someday be telemetry in USB sticks. We'll see. Meanwhile... I have had experiences where putting in a USB stick automatically installs malware on the computer.
That's only if your computer is configured to automatically run whatever autorun.ini specifies, which it really should not be.
Do you trust that the USB "power port" is just power and not a host?
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> I guess becausse someone made lots of money from it or it became popular or something. No, it’s because it was useful and simple in a way that non-techies could and would set up and use. That’s why Dropbox got popular.
Even as a techie, why would you put in the work to set up your own thing? Though, I moved away from Dropbox long ago when they introduced device limits. One phone, one laptop and one triple booting desktop -> over the device limit already.
Keeping that running and reliable and operating it for years or decades sounds like an absolute nightmare and I'd suggest avoiding that at all costs.
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Or use an open source client without telemetry such as https://maestral.app ㋡
This. Recently came back to macOS after a decade on the other side, and one surprise was how terrible the official Dropbox client was. Installed Maestral instead and it just works -- just like Dropbox used to. I see Dropbox as one of the biggest failures of the VC model. If only they had been bootstrapped, they would probably have stuck with their initial sync offering: A perfectly executed solution to a problem ever…
Who doesn't want free storage? No one, that's who.
See also: everything from Sourceforge to Docker Hub. Very few can complete the transition into a paid service.
The important distinction is whether you sell a product or a service. Dropbox is clearly a service, but it's easy to envision a product instead.
Had the user paid for storage up front, the product would be incentivized to support multiple backends to be able to compete on cost. But it doesn't, because it is the storage service that is the actual thing being sold.
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That's only if your computer is configured to automatically run whatever autorun.ini specifies, which it really should not be.
Do you trust that the USB stick is just storage and not something additional? Do you trust that the USB "power port" is just power and not a host?
Regarding rogue host devices (not just a power port): I agree 100%, these are dangerous. Luckily a typical USB port on a Windows computer can only interact with client devices, not host devices, as far as I'm aware. The inverse of OTG doesn't seem like it would exist.
Many times on HN, commenters have mocked those who questioned why someone would use Dropbox instead of a method controlled by the user. I guess becausse someone made lots of money from it or it became popular or something. I always found this perplexing because I look at solutions from the perspective of the user, namely, me, not from the perspective of a third party "tech" startup founder. It's insensitive to the pe…
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This. Recently came back to macOS after a decade on the other side, and one surprise was how terrible the official Dropbox client was. Installed Maestral instead and it just works -- just like Dropbox used to. I see Dropbox as one of the biggest failures of the VC model. If only they had been bootstrapped, they would probably have stuck with their initial sync offering: A perfectly executed solution to a problem ever…
Sure, but without VC money the product space wouldn't exist at all, at least not as a free service. Who doesn't want free storage? No one, that's who. See also: everything from Sourceforge to Docker Hub. Very few can complete the transition into a paid service. The important distinction is whether you sell a product or a service. Dropbox is clearly a service, but it's easy to envision a product instead. Had the user…
Why would I upload my data for you to hold for free if history shows you are going to be gone in 6 months?
So to answer your question "Who doesn't want free storage?", everyone who's been burned before, that's who.
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Or use an open source client without telemetry such as https://maestral.app ㋡
I wish there would be a Google Drive equivalent of this.
One can install and use nextcloud. You get similar client and similar experience. You need to care about your data and server though.
Taking care of data and servers is the big problem, even for people who are more into computers. There are many holes to fall into.