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Dropbox Secures $600M Credit Line Ahead of Expected IPO

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Re: Dropbox Secures $600M Credit Line Ahead of Expected IPO

#131

Post by kinkrtyavimoodh »

jpalomaki wrote: post #86
GordonS wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does work. Most of the time, for most people. But, at least on Windows, only being able to sync 1 folder is a serious limitation. Again at least on Windows, CPU and disk utilisation goes through the roofnon start-up, rendering your machine all but useless for half an hour. And the final nail in my Dropbox coffin - it seemed to quite often choose the wrong file when there were conflicts, and at times it mistakenly…

You can use symlinks (mklink on Windows) to overcome the "one folder limitation". Not perfect, but helps in some cases.

Funnily enough, I used to use OneDrive OneDrive (SkyDrive back then) with symlinks and it had a bug in its earlier version that basically fucked up your backups if you used symlinks and upgraded OneDrive. It ended up creating file_1 file_2 etc multiple versions of all my files and was a pain to sort through.

Re: Dropbox Secures $600M Credit Line Ahead of Expected IPO

#132

Post by skdotdan »

stephenr wrote: post #123
sidlls wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me you're looking at this from a technically proficient developer's perspective. It's easy (trivial) for a technically proficient person to setup any trivial cloud storage system they like on just about any provider's platform they like. It's not so easy for anybody else (read: the vast majority of other users). Dropbox's value proposition isn't commodity storage on somebody else's servers: it's the UI/UX…

Dropbox isn't installed by default on any platform. Apple, Microsoft and Goole all offer 'cloud' storage services (they aren't a product, stop calling it that) and all have a user-facing platform on devices: macOS/iOS, the various Windows, Android/ChromeOS. Dropbox is effectively a feature. That isn't to say they can't remain in the market and possibly even become profitable, but just making a sync client whose bigge…

Exactly. What happened to Google Maps market share on iOS when Apple make Apple Maps the default option (even considering that at that point GMaps was way better than Apple's alternative)?

Re: Dropbox Secures $600M Credit Line Ahead of Expected IPO

#133

Post by dleslie »

alphapapa wrote: post #118
dleslie wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had to stop using Dropbox because it was unusable on Linux. It leaked memory, hogged CPU cycles, and cranked up IO Wait times. It was simple and thoughtless, for sure; and that reflected in its decrepit behaviour.

I've been using Dropbox on Linux for many years, and it's definitely had some occasional issues with memory leaks, and its general CPU and memory usage has definitely increased. Used to be it never went over 100 MB RSS, but now it's always well over that, at about 250 right now. Anyway, I run it at nice 5 and "ionice -c3", and even though I'd like to switch to something else, I still haven't found anything better for…

> I run it at nice 5 and ionice 18

No thought required. Simple.

;)

Re: Dropbox Secures $600M Credit Line Ahead of Expected IPO

#134

Post by sidlls »

skdotdan wrote: post #130
sidlls wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me you're looking at this from a technically proficient developer's perspective. It's easy (trivial) for a technically proficient person to setup any trivial cloud storage system they like on just about any provider's platform they like. It's not so easy for anybody else (read: the vast majority of other users). Dropbox's value proposition isn't commodity storage on somebody else's servers: it's the UI/UX…

I see, but is it really that better than Google Drive or Onedrive? Also, if you sign up for these services you get a bundle of other apps (office).

Well that's a different question. Do non-technical people think of these as the same as Dropbox?

Re: Dropbox Secures $600M Credit Line Ahead of Expected IPO

#135

Post by stephenr »

sidlls wrote: post #128
stephenr wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dropbox isn't installed by default on any platform. Apple, Microsoft and Goole all offer 'cloud' storage services (they aren't a product, stop calling it that) and all have a user-facing platform on devices: macOS/iOS, the various Windows, Android/ChromeOS. Dropbox is effectively a feature. That isn't to say they can't remain in the market and possibly even become profitable, but just making a sync client whose bigge…

If the market treats them like a product, they are a product. Also the number of people outside of techie communities that care about either Apple computers or "skeezy" installs on them is tiny. Mac has a tiny, tiny fraction of the computing market and the vast majority of MacBook users are about as tech savvy as the vast majority of windows laptop users: that is they aren't savvy at all.

> If the market treats them like a product

A product is something you buy once. A service is something that is provided to you over time to use, usually in exchange for money. My issue was people calling cloud based storage a 'product'. It isn't, it's a service.

You seem to be somehow ignoring the little glass-faced elephant in the room: iPhones/iPads. The number of people who use these devices is not tiny.

The people who don't care about Apple but are still potential Dropbox customers are still using an OS: either Windows, Android or ChromeOS. The manufacturers of those OS' also compete with Dropbox. So what's your point about Apple exactly?

Non-technical users are exactly my point. Why would grandma use Dropbox, when its almost certain the device has built-in cloud-syncing storage from the OS manufacturer?

Re: Dropbox Secures $600M Credit Line Ahead of Expected IPO

#136

Post by rogerbinns »

brightball wrote: post #19
shubhamjain wrote: post #10

One concern about Dropbox I have is its inability to establish itself beyond its File Storage / Syncing software. Salesforce.com, in comparison, has been acquiring companies left and right. Notable acquisitions of Dropbox, like Mailbox, have either shut down, or are nowhere on the impact map. As Dropbox user (albeit a free one), I don't find it useful for anything beyond synced storage (if there is any new addition i…

To this point, Dropbox does an excellent job of what they set out to do. I haven't seen anybody do it better and I'm a happy paid user. Being able to pay $10 / month for 1TB of fast, instantly synced and versioned online storage integrated directly into the filesystem is hard to beat.

The place where Dropbox is spectacularly bad is multiple account support. Google does a good job of multiple account support - you log in to the relevant multiple accounts and things work.

Dropbox expects you to pseudo-merge exactly one personal account with exactly one business account. You end up with a mess. It gets even worse when trying to unmerge them. And is not useful should you have more accounts than exactly one of each. That mess will keep coming back to bite you almost every month as Dropbox doesn't do what you'd expect.

Dropbox is lucky that that they do two things their competitors don't: they support Linux and syncing generally works.

Re: Dropbox Secures $600M Credit Line Ahead of Expected IPO

#137

Post by johnsea »

maverick_iceman wrote: post #121
yeukhon wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we need a better storage backup system. I've got data on iCloud and on multiple desktops and laptops. My iCloud doesn't have all the photos because I'd run out of space and be paying dozens of dollars monthly [1]. I was helping my friend to select a disk backup solution a while ago, and not that many really came to my likings. Backblaze[2] is probably the only one I would say pretty good for a monthly backup…

Try Google Drive and Google Photos. Google Photos offer unlimited space for high-res photos.

Dropbox won't analyse and sell you left and right.

You cannot compare these two services. One is a service, one is an ad machine.

Re: Dropbox Secures $600M Credit Line Ahead of Expected IPO

#138

Post by tlogan »

reverend_gonzo wrote: post #18
blowski wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do they need to expand beyond that? Am I idealistic to say a company can survive just by doing something really well. Salesforce is hardly a paragon of a well-executed clear and consistent vision. I pay Dropbox because I can rely on their backups any place at any time, not because their storage is cheap.

The main problem is that, if they wanted to, it shouldn't take Apple/Microsoft/Google/Amazon too much work to put out a comparable product and offer it for free. As an anecdote, my girlfriend already cancelled her Dropbox account because iCloud provides what she needs at a much cheaper cost. Personally, I require Unix support and also use a large portion of the terabyte of space, but I'd bet that the majority of user…

> it shouldn't take Apple/Microsoft/Google/Amazon too much work to put out a comparable product and offer it for free

This kind of thinking is exactly why Apple/Microsoft/Google/Amazon will never deliver something better.

Yes - they can deliver something better for free but they think "it shouldn't take a lot of effort" so whatever they deliver is not adequate.

They also do not have no business reason to do it since valuable engineers and time can be better spent on other business sectors. For example, Amazon Cloud Drive is just a checkbox (look you can save you photos and videos also on our storage) from point of view Amazon management. Google Drive is the same. Microsoft has the same thinking: look here is OneDrive - but we really want you to buy Sharepoint.

So do not expect anything of Dropbox quality from these companies.

Re: Dropbox Secures $600M Credit Line Ahead of Expected IPO

#139

Post by mark_l_watson »

blowski wrote: post #14
shubhamjain wrote: post #10

One concern about Dropbox I have is its inability to establish itself beyond its File Storage / Syncing software. Salesforce.com, in comparison, has been acquiring companies left and right. Notable acquisitions of Dropbox, like Mailbox, have either shut down, or are nowhere on the impact map. As Dropbox user (albeit a free one), I don't find it useful for anything beyond synced storage (if there is any new addition i…

Why do they need to expand beyond that? Am I idealistic to say a company can survive just by doing something really well. Salesforce is hardly a paragon of a well-executed clear and consistent vision. I pay Dropbox because I can rely on their backups any place at any time, not because their storage is cheap.

I agree with you about doing one thing really well. A little off topic, but: I think DropBox is missing a revenue opportunity by not having a yearly package for something like $20/year, for perhaps 20 or 30 gigabytes. I am not a paying customer because my use is well within the free tier, but I would pay for a smaller package if it was available.

Re: Dropbox Secures $600M Credit Line Ahead of Expected IPO

#140

Post by alphapapa »

dleslie wrote: post #133
alphapapa wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using Dropbox on Linux for many years, and it's definitely had some occasional issues with memory leaks, and its general CPU and memory usage has definitely increased. Used to be it never went over 100 MB RSS, but now it's always well over that, at about 250 right now. Anyway, I run it at nice 5 and "ionice -c3", and even though I'd like to switch to something else, I still haven't found anything better for…

> I run it at nice 5 and ionice 18 No thought required. Simple. ;)

Oops, I meant ionice -c3, not 18. I run a backup client at nice 18.
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