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Dropbox silently installed new file manager app on users’ systems

arstechnica.com

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Re: Dropbox silently installed new file manager app on users’ systems

#101

Post by jvagner »

bluedino wrote: post #65
navigatesol wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Please go back to being a folder that syncs A simple, effective utility can't support a multi-billion valuation. Where else will the VC Ponzi dollars go?

Isn't the problem that most Dropbox users just won't pay for it?

I've paid for Dropbox for years, but recently cancelled, because I'm uncertain of the direction they're heading in. It's like Evernote of yore.. in fact, I sarcastically think Evernote and Dropbox should merge so I can simplify what I nostalgically ignore to just one entity.

That said, I get Google Drive File Stream with my G Suite company account, and I get Microsoft OneDrive with my Office 365 subscription, and I get 2TB in iCloud with my iCloud subscription. This supports the "feature" idea.

I wasn't thinking about dropping Dropbox until this latest round of product news.

Re: Dropbox silently installed new file manager app on users’ systems

#103

Post by 0_gravitas »

jcranberry wrote: post #97
0_gravitas wrote: post #90

Perhaps I dont fully understand the value of something like DropBox, when it comes to syncing my files the only thing I've ever needed has been github (or other online repo). Among syncing it has all the other version control goodness, and I will likely use it until I can setup some kind of home server

From the users perspective git is an application which you use to actively maintain a repo. Whereas Dropbox is more or less just a magic folder. Entirely different levels of convenience.

I definitely understand why "normal" users wouldn't use an online repo (especially if they've never used git itself), but I can't really buy `git add ., git commit -m "sync", git push -u` being too inconvenient, especially when you can just alias all of those. Now if mobile phones are the main reason I can definately understand a bit more, but I do my best to minimize my usage of it anyway, it's mainly a messenger + hn device.

Re: Dropbox silently installed new file manager app on users’ systems

#105

Post by aero142 »

bhouston wrote: post #48
criddell wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steve Jobs may have been right when he said something to the effect of Dropbox isn't a product, it's a feature . If all you want is a folder that syncs, then don't we get that from every commercial operating system?

Steve Jobs was right and Dropbox is having problems as a result. They are trying to differentiate but it hasn't been working out, it seems to be muddling in various different directions.

This feels like the “we’re all dead in the long run” version of right.

Re: Dropbox silently installed new file manager app on users’ systems

#106

Post by braythwayt »

bhouston wrote: post #40
CPLX wrote: post #3

This seems like a good time to resurface the worlds best Quora answer, by Michael Wolfe. Answering “Why is Dropbox more popular than other tools with similar functionality?”: Well, let's take a step back and think about the sync problem and what the ideal solution for it would do: There would be a folder. You'd put your stuff in it. It would sync. They built that. Why didn't anyone else build that? I have no idea. "B…

> "But," you may ask, "so much more you could do! What about task management, calendaring, customized dashboards, virtual white boarding. More than just folders and files!" > > No, shut up. People don't use that crap. They just want a folder. A folder that syncs. This argument is a good one but it only covers the rise of Dropbox. We are now in a different era. Dropbox's functionality is now table stakes and not somet…

Dropbox needs to figure out how to stay in a commoditized market where their special sauce is being integrated into OSes and larger offerings (G-Suite.)

With respect, that is Dropbox's problem. Dropbox needs to do that, But I don't need Dropbox to do that.

The same is true of music-playing apps. Once they cost money and added value. Then platforms all started making "play this music file" free. The purveyors all tried to add more value. And there are a few specialized music players kicking around.

But most went away, the business model was no longer viable, and the move into adding lots of functionality pushed them into a niche.

I agree that Dropbox is facing an existential crisis. If Apple delivers on some of its promised new iCloud folder sharing functionality, I will end my Dropbox subscription, and no amount of "We're a collaboration platform" will change that.

Dropbox knows that, and is going in the direction of getting money from someone else. Will they succeed? Maybe, maybe not. But either way, most of their existing user base is finding their less useful and less valuable as they make this transition.

Shrug.

I have witnessed this so many times over the last thirty-five years. One set of forces acts to take something that was originally just for companies, and "Consumerizes" it. Spreadsheets are common for people to track all kinds of personal things. Kids use them in school.

In the opposite direction, companies chasing the money "Enterprise" their consumer offerings, abandoning the users that built them in the first place.

Same as it ever was.

Re: Dropbox silently installed new file manager app on users’ systems

#107

Post by mrlala »

jdlyga wrote: post #102

I recently moved from Dropbox to OneDrive. I think OneDrive's been moving forward more with tying standard windows user folders into syncing. It works more seamlessly with Windows. If only there was a better Linux client though.

I would have loved to just use OneDrive, but it sucks with a lot of little files. It literally just doesn't work properly.

At a few hundred thousand files I found OneDrive just stalls.. sometimes it might work, other times not. Usually it just sits there and you have no idea what it's doing.

Re: Dropbox silently installed new file manager app on users’ systems

#108

Post by technofiend »

navigatesol wrote: post #37
blackbrokkoli wrote: post #24

Dropbox current direction just makes me sad. I struggled with file management for a long time - balancing accessibility from phone, highly effective programming environments, backing up large quantities of not-small photos, that stuff. So I sat down one afternoon, drafted a directory structure, subbed to Dropbox and...it worked so well. Synced my configs between machines, got an Android app which could preview lot's…

> Please go back to being a folder that syncs A simple, effective utility can't support a multi-billion valuation. Where else will the VC Ponzi dollars go?

>A simple, effective utility can't support a multi-billion valuation.

This is the real issue: everyone wants to be a unicorn and no one wants to be a utility.

Re: Dropbox silently installed new file manager app on users’ systems

#109

Post by spacenick88 »

I deleted my account when they purposefully made their Linux version not launch on any other FS than ext4. I use btrfs and that supports all the features they use, still Dropbox refused to work with it. I complained to their support and then deleted my account. Then again I guess having a private server with NextCloud means I'm pretty privileged.

Re: Dropbox silently installed new file manager app on users’ systems

#110

Post by fit2rule »

criddell wrote: post #41
CPLX wrote: post #3

This seems like a good time to resurface the worlds best Quora answer, by Michael Wolfe. Answering “Why is Dropbox more popular than other tools with similar functionality?”: Well, let's take a step back and think about the sync problem and what the ideal solution for it would do: There would be a folder. You'd put your stuff in it. It would sync. They built that. Why didn't anyone else build that? I have no idea. "B…

Steve Jobs may have been right when he said something to the effect of Dropbox isn't a product, it's a feature . If all you want is a folder that syncs, then don't we get that from every commercial operating system?

Because OS vendors care more about making money on the Internet than making operating systems with features that people want.
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