Live data from Hacker News

Introducing a more powerful Dropbox Pro

blog.dropbox.com

61–70 of 151 posts

Re: Introducing a more powerful Dropbox Pro

#61

I do not have a need of 1TB of space, just 100GB would do. It would be great if they provided a tier of 100GB plan (just like Google Drive)

No one (almost) needs 1TB... the way they can afford it is they expect most people to use at most a few hundred GB, but with the peace of mind that they could store more

Personal photos and videos I don't want to lose, which are of course backed up to actual backup systems, but I also want access to wherever I am. That's what I need 1TB for.

Re: Introducing a more powerful Dropbox Pro

#62
post #35

All that matters: Does Dropbox encrypt my data on the client side, before storing it on the server? Or does Dropbox have the power to pilfer through my data, along with official snoopers and hackers?

No, Dropbox does NOT encrypt your data on the client site. Alternatives would be Spideroak and Wuala or addon software like Boxcryptor. They work but not as flawlessly and user-friendly as Dropbox usually does …

I've found EncFS over Dropbox to be pretty good, retaining the best of both worlds.

Re: Introducing a more powerful Dropbox Pro

#64
post #57
post #48

I've got something I like better than Dropbox. It's called rdiff. It does one thing only: deduplication. All the other stuff needed for remote, incremental backups, e.g., moving files back and forth over a network, can be done with other open source tools. I think I have a pretty good command of moving files around with open source software... I do not need a third party to help me via an obfuscated blob of Python an…

How do I set up these tools to automatically sync a set of files between multiple computers and make them accessible from my smartphone and tablet?

It's been mentioned in a few other comments, but ownCloud does all that.

https://owncloud.org/

You don't even need to set it up yourself:

https://owncloud.org/providers/

Re: Introducing a more powerful Dropbox Pro

#65

I've been waiting on this for a long time. Now Dropbox might actually be a viable, affordable off-site backup solution.

Dropbox isn't ideal for backup at all. Look into Crashplan. Client-side encryption, unlimited versioning, never deletes files, and only $6/month for truly unlimited backup.

Does it have an OSS Linux client, even headless?

All I want is to encryptedly back up some directories on my home server, but nothing* really does that. I use SpiderOak at the moment, but it's not OSS.

* Except attic, but I'd rather pay for a service as important as this (I don't trust the remote server to not lose files): http://www.stavros.io/posts/holy-grail-backups/

Re: Introducing a more powerful Dropbox Pro

#66
Dropbox is morally corrupt and support for them by HN users is disappointing.

I wrote to Dropbox and said I wanted to cancel my account and get a pro-rated refund because of their hiring of Condoleezza Rice. Her involvement in the Iraq war and the mass surveillance of Americans is deplorable.

A few days after my request my account was converted to the free version, with the limitations of the free version. I could no longer sync any files. When I saw this I assumed I was going to get the refund.

Days passed. I asked about the refund. The support email included disturbingly fawning about Ms. Rice and how amazing she was, and insisted that the Dropbox ToS made it flat-out impossible for them to issue any refunds. My account was changed back to allow the 100 GB of storage and Dropbox acted like it never botched my request.

It almost funny that they would not even respect differing opinion on their hiring of Ms. Rice and graciously offer a refund to those offended by such a move. Hiding behind their own ToS just shows how deaf they are to the matter. They basically don't give a fuck, and they don't have to because they have enough people who are more concerned with convenience than principles as amply shown on HN.

There are very good alternatives to Dropbox. Both SpiderOak and ownCloud work great on Windows, OSX, and Linux. You can get managed ownCloud hosting if you don't want to set up your own: https://owner.io.

It's puzzling that anyone would trust them with their data given their behavior.

Re: Introducing a more powerful Dropbox Pro

#67
I switched to Copy since the Condoleeza Rice situation and I have had no problems whatsoever. I have the app running on a macbook pro, an imac and two android mobile devices. It's also about half the price that Dropbox charges. I recommend it.

Re: Introducing a more powerful Dropbox Pro

#68
post #64
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do I set up these tools to automatically sync a set of files between multiple computers and make them accessible from my smartphone and tablet?

It's been mentioned in a few other comments, but ownCloud does all that. https://owncloud.org/ You don't even need to set it up yourself: https://owncloud.org/providers/

Thanks for the pointer. I'd heard about that before but never really checked it out. Looks pretty straightforward.

Re: Introducing a more powerful Dropbox Pro

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dropbox isn't ideal for backup at all. Look into Crashplan. Client-side encryption, unlimited versioning, never deletes files, and only $6/month for truly unlimited backup.

Does it have an OSS Linux client, even headless? All I want is to encryptedly back up some directories on my home server, but nothing* really does that. I use SpiderOak at the moment, but it's not OSS. * Except attic, but I'd rather pay for a service as important as this (I don't trust the remote server to not lose files): http://www.stavros.io/posts/holy-grail-backups/

http://www.tarsnap.com/

http://rsync.net/

Re: Introducing a more powerful Dropbox Pro

#70

Dropbox is morally corrupt and support for them by HN users is disappointing. I wrote to Dropbox and said I wanted to cancel my account and get a pro-rated refund because of their hiring of Condoleezza Rice. Her involvement in the Iraq war and the mass surveillance of Americans is deplorable. A few days after my request my account was converted to the free version, with the limitations of the free version. I could no…

Why are you entitled to a refund? You disagree with their hiring policies? You already paid the $99 for 1 year of service. You already bought it. It's done. Your option is to cancel at renewal or not.

That's my take, anyway. I also asked for a refund when Google announced their far cheaper plans for GDrive, and this just a month after I renewed. They told me the same thing -- a policy of no partial refunds. So I asked them to ensure I would not be auto rebilled, and that was that. Why exactly are they morally corrupt for this?

Post reply on HN