Dropbox Is Getting Ready for IPO • Hacker News Board

Re: Dropbox Is Getting Ready for IPO

#151

Post by ant6n » Mon, Jul 03, 2017, 1:05 PM UTC

chii wrote: post #148

xiaoma wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, we need retail investors to be able to invest in micro cap level companies. Nobody independent is going to do well competing against institutional investors who have, better access, faster trades and teams of quants. The only way to win is to play a game they can't play. Micro caps are a good example since institutional investors can't invest in them easily (even buying the whole company doesn't move the needle…

> micro cap pardon my ignorance, but what is a 'micro cap'?

A company that's worth millions (instead of hundreds of millions or billions)

Re: Dropbox Is Getting Ready for IPO

#152

Post by imron » Mon, Jul 03, 2017, 1:14 PM UTC

andai wrote: post #136

briandear wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes.. a a quick python script to market and sell it!

Haha, I'd pay for that!

So would tens of millions of dropbox users.

Re: Dropbox Is Getting Ready for IPO

#153

Post by ant6n » Mon, Jul 03, 2017, 1:20 PM UTC

lloeki wrote: post #108

thirdsun wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they still have the most polished product, particularly when it comes to the web interface. I don't even have the Dropbox client installed and instead use the service via Arq to backup my music library which is about 500 GB and growing. However I hear the client is flawless and can sync files partially which is significant when it comes to large files. Occasionally I host and transfer large files and the web…

> However I hear the client is flawless and can sync files partially which is significant when it comes to large files. Yes, Dropbox is one of the rare ones that handle rsync-style rolling checksum syncing. It’s also the only one to sync FS-specific xattrs properly (like hidden extension on MacOS). Google Drive fails on both points.

One issue is that it gets slow when there are a lot of files.

Re: Dropbox Is Getting Ready for IPO

#154

Post by ValentineC » Mon, Jul 03, 2017, 1:22 PM UTC

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #40

I used Dropbox for a few years, but ultimately switched to another big-name company service. Consumers now have great options available from all the big-name companies: Amazon Drive, Apple iCloud, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive. Meanwhile, in the enterprise world it looks like Box is dominating. Given this, I think it's reasonable to ask: what's their value proposition in 2017? I hadn't been following them for…

> Meanwhile, in the enterprise world it looks like Box is dominating.

Any idea why?

Re: Dropbox Is Getting Ready for IPO

#155

Post by GordonS » Mon, Jul 03, 2017, 1:30 PM UTC

flurdy wrote: post #117

GordonS wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another Seafile user here, also moved from Dropbox. I moved before the big price hike, and I did so for a few reasons: 1. It kills machines on startup. My machine had the CPU and HDD maxxed out for 30 minutes every time I started it, rendering it unusable 2. You can only sync a single folder, which is really limiting 3. The syncing algorithm is crap (well, it was for me anyway) - I was constantly resolving conflicts…

> 2. You can only sync a single folder, which is really limiting That is easily worked around as Dropbox follows symlinks. E.g on my desktop ~/Dropbox is on a small SSD so on that machine ~/Dropbox/Photos is a symlink to a folder on my large capacity HDD. > 4. Perhaps you already aware of the symlink solution :) It works for me, but is a little hacky. And you need to make sure dropbox is not running when moving and s…

> That is easily worked around as Dropbox follows symlinks

Not on Windows :(

Re: Dropbox Is Getting Ready for IPO

#156

Post by lambdadmitry » Mon, Jul 03, 2017, 1:43 PM UTC

wslh wrote: post #137

anovikov wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to replicate 90s experience of the dot-com boom, buy into ICOs now. And the end result will most probably be... well also same to 90s.

ICOs will evolve with more realistic offerings. The DAO disaster only happened one year ago and the community recovered very fast. The main point is the difficulty to access good deals early on and that is what is happening with new IPOs.

"The community" didn't "recover" because it wasn't broken in the first place. Sure ETH:USD declined, but then went up because everyone and their dog buy or mine cryptocurrencies in hope of getting rich fast (extensive media coverage helps). It's not a sign of a sound economic system, it's a sign of a bubble.

Re: Dropbox Is Getting Ready for IPO

#157

Post by ceejayoz » Mon, Jul 03, 2017, 1:52 PM UTC

sangnoir wrote: post #94

As I expected - it looks like no-one remembers the "Drop Dropbox" boycott campaign that came right on the heels of Brendan Eich's ouster at Mozilla. I strongly believe had Mozilla's board showed him the same robust support Dropbox showed Condoleezza Rice, Mozilla would be in a much better place today.

Eich was far more closely tied to Mozilla than Rice to Dropbox, though. No one in their right mind thought Rice had much to do with Dropbox beyond being a name they could drop and a bit of lobbying help.

Re: Dropbox Is Getting Ready for IPO

#158

Post by badsock » Mon, Jul 03, 2017, 1:55 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #73

badsock wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't agree with visarga's first sentence. But I don't think it's childish to want a war criminal to be held to some account. More than 100,000 civilians died in that conflict, and Rice played a key role in knowingly selling the lies that lead to their deaths. She deserves prison, and the founders and board of Dropbox deserve to be hounded for their complicity in her escape from any negative consequence resulting f…

Would you please stop using HN primarily for political battle? I don't think it requires being an Iraq War supporter to point out that accounts that do this violate the mandate of this site. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html .

Sigh. You're right, sorry. I'm out.

Re: Dropbox Is Getting Ready for IPO

#159

Post by striking » Mon, Jul 03, 2017, 1:56 PM UTC

GordonS wrote: post #155

flurdy wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 2. You can only sync a single folder, which is really limiting That is easily worked around as Dropbox follows symlinks. E.g on my desktop ~/Dropbox is on a small SSD so on that machine ~/Dropbox/Photos is a symlink to a folder on my large capacity HDD. > 4. Perhaps you already aware of the symlink solution :) It works for me, but is a little hacky. And you need to make sure dropbox is not running when moving and s…

> That is easily worked around as Dropbox follows symlinks Not on Windows :(

You're sure a well-placed `mklink` won't do the trick?

Re: Dropbox Is Getting Ready for IPO

#160

Post by manigandham » Mon, Jul 03, 2017, 2:06 PM UTC

ValentineC wrote: post #154

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #40

I used Dropbox for a few years, but ultimately switched to another big-name company service. Consumers now have great options available from all the big-name companies: Amazon Drive, Apple iCloud, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive. Meanwhile, in the enterprise world it looks like Box is dominating. Given this, I think it's reasonable to ask: what's their value proposition in 2017? I hadn't been following them for…

> Meanwhile, in the enterprise world it looks like Box is dominating. Any idea why?

Box has the admin controls, customizations, APIs and workflow tools that big enterprises actually want and need.

Dropbox didnt even have Groups to manage users until just 18 months ago and had silly things like invites for group folders which are all holdovers from their consumer roots.