Poll: Did you “drop Dropbox”? • Hacker News Board

Re: Poll: Did you “drop Dropbox”?

#151

Post by Fuxy » Wed, Oct 01, 2014, 3:34 PM UTC

gcommer wrote: post #84

Fuxy wrote: post #76

Why would i ever use Dropbox when there's a better more private option out there like btsync. All you need to do is run your own server which I already do and you basically have the same functionality.

Just a reminder that BTSync is closed source and the protocol it uses has not been released. Better FOSS versions exist - the best one that I know of (and which I currently use) is http://syncthing.net/

Sounds good I'll take a look.

Didn't really know about it, started using btsync when it launched never searched for alternatives since.

Re: Poll: Did you “drop Dropbox”?

#152

Post by kordless » Wed, Oct 01, 2014, 3:36 PM UTC

lhnz wrote: post #34

I continue to use Dropbox and I'm pro the appointment of Condoleezza Rice as for the sake of our industry it is wise for us to have better political links to the US government. (Politics is irrelevant to me, but power is not. The government can already twist your arm; being on first name's basis with somebody important will be invaluable.) Edit: I thought we could openly state our opinions, but it seems I am getting…

> but power is not

It should be. Irrelevant, that is.

Re: Poll: Did you “drop Dropbox”?

#153

Post by sauere » Wed, Oct 01, 2014, 3:39 PM UTC

Call me old fashioned, but i have never used Dropbox or a similar service.

For the last 4 years, i have been using rdiff-backup in combination with a cheap, $10 100GB VPS and it has never failed me.

Re: Poll: Did you “drop Dropbox”?

#154

Post by themoonbus » Wed, Oct 01, 2014, 3:40 PM UTC

I use Dropbox, but mainly for sharing files between a team and with clients. Also for the Camera Upload feature to auto sync photos from my iPhone.

I otherwise don't really have need for cloud storage for my personal files (1 machine for work and for home!)

I patronize other companies that employee people whose politics I don't agree with, so I don't really see the need to get rid of it for political reasons.

Re: Poll: Did you “drop Dropbox”?

#155

Post by arh68 » Wed, Oct 01, 2014, 3:42 PM UTC

I loved dropbox, it was very useful. The Rice appointment was totally surprising, and the drop-dropbox page was fairly well-written, so I dropped Dropbox. It became immediately clear the company I thought they were and the company they are diverged some time ago. It doesn't really matter when, now.

My .bash_profile is much more of a mess now, but I'm more aware of where all my hard copies are. Before, I relied on Dropbox way too much to keep important stuff around.

Besides, tarsnap has a better CLI, am I right? ;)

Re: Poll: Did you “drop Dropbox”?

#156

Post by lingben » Wed, Oct 01, 2014, 3:43 PM UTC

nikolak wrote: post #148

I did, and then I reinstalled it when I saw that it's the only thing that works. Alternatives aren't as good as dropbox. Google drive is a close second, but without official linux client it's borderline useless to me - also their photo backup system is too complicated with g+, private/public albums, sharing, galleries etc and I don't want to spend time figuring it out when I just want simple photo backup service that…

did you try duplicati? the fact that dropbox doesn't have client side encryption is a MAJOR issue

also duplicati is open sourced

Re: Poll: Did you “drop Dropbox”?

#157

Post by swartkrans » Wed, Oct 01, 2014, 3:43 PM UTC

Fuxy wrote: post #128

swartkrans wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why would i ever use Dropbox Because setting up and maintaining your own server is a lot more work than a click and a download. And a single server is a single point of failure, whereas Dropbox's architecture isn't, whereas downloads speeds will be limited to your upload speeds when you are away from home, whereas many other reasons such as sharing, and the Dropbox ecosystem.

Is that high speed really necessary or that high reliability. So what if the sever goes down for a few minutes or a hour sometime, your files will just sync when it comes up. A small virtual server in a data center can do a decent job of it.

> high reliability

For pictures of my family, yes that high reliability is worth it, I don't want to permanently lose a single photo because of a hardware or software failure. I backup my dropbox to s3 via Arq and also have a IFTTT that pushes photos to the free TB of space flickr gives everyone.

Re: Poll: Did you “drop Dropbox”?

#158

Post by zampano » Wed, Oct 01, 2014, 3:44 PM UTC

I haven't dropped Dropbox because I was unaware of the appointment of Condoleezza Rice prior to this poll. I've been considering dropping it for awhile for general privacy reasons, but this might be what pushes me over the edge.

Re: Poll: Did you “drop Dropbox”?

#159

Post by Trufa » Wed, Oct 01, 2014, 3:44 PM UTC

lucisferre wrote: post #66

Trufa wrote: post #35

We've switched to owncloud not for Condoleezza Rice in particular but for general privacy concerns, the possibility to self host and pricing issues. We really recommend the product, it may have some disadvantages to dropbox but it's very very usable, evolving and we're very happy about it.

Would you mind elaborating on the disadvantages? Also what are the advantages in terms of pricing, how much less is it costing you? I'd also be curious how much maintenance, setup, etc., work you estimate is involved.

One of the main disadvantages as of now is that there is no over wifi syncing so if there's a big file upload, everyone will have to download it at the office. This hasn't been an issue, but I guess in some scenarios it could be.

Another disadvantage might be that their mobile apps are not free, they are at a more than reasonable price and I don't mind the business model but it could be a little bit uncomfortable, do the employees pay the $1 and then get it back, do you send them as gifts? (Google play doesn't support gifts for example). Not the end of the world but still.

Well, we didn't pay for a Dropbox enterprise account or anything, we always try to minimize costs, that meant that you wither needed to switch between personal and business accounts or use the web interface for one. It also meant that we were constantly overflowing our limits. Dropbox is no offering more than when I last checked, but right now it would be for 22 users €3,168 per year.

I was not so closely involved with the setup but I believe it was pretty straight forward and we've been using with basically no troubles. The software works nicely.

Re: Poll: Did you “drop Dropbox”?

#160

Post by supersystem » Wed, Oct 01, 2014, 3:45 PM UTC

lhnz wrote: post #125

sspiff wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think down/upvotes are related to political beliefs? It could be that people think you are making a good/bullshit argument, regardless of their political inclination.

1. The poll was framed in a way that did not make my opinion available. 2. Nobody else had expressed my position so I thought that it was uncommon. 3. I assumed the poll was meant to try to force Dropbox to drop her from the board. 4. I expressed a position that wasn't that political but that I knew would anger or confuse political witchhunters. 5. It is quite common for people to downvote information that does not a…

Your "argument" wasn't that good to begin with, since you don't say why political links to the US government would be a good thing nor why she in particular would be a good choice for making/maintaining those links.