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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

#251

Post by wyclif »

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?

The problem isn't that Dropbox users won't pay, clearly they will. Or at least they would when it was simply a useful utility. The problem is that cloud storage is a commodity now, and Dropbox has to meet investor expectations which has been the death of many a perfectly good app.

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

#252

Post by [deleted] »

techslave wrote: post #250
toomuchtodo wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://github.com/Obbut/iCloud-Control

> you are not permitted and will not get permission to list iCloud Control or any derivative work on software catalogue websites like Mac Informer or MacUpdate. that’s not a legal or enforceable license restriction.

[deleted]

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

#253

Post by technofiend »

UncleMeat wrote: post #175
technofiend wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

Well duh.

Right? I feel like you could build a million karma quoting the original poster and saying "Well, duh" on Reddit. Probably lots of bots doing it already.

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

#254

Post by apple4ever »

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?

Which is Dropbox’s fault with their terrible pricing. The next level up is super expensive. Instead of making it a good value and easy they did the opposite.

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

#255

Post by toomuchtodo »

techslave wrote: post #250
toomuchtodo wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://github.com/Obbut/iCloud-Control

> you are not permitted and will not get permission to list iCloud Control or any derivative work on software catalogue websites like Mac Informer or MacUpdate. that’s not a legal or enforceable license restriction.

Not my code, not my repo.

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

#256

Post by brokenmachine »

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…

Lol, it's sad to see how far Dropbox has gone from the idea of a folder that syncs.

I recently had the unhappy experience of trying to share a picture that I'd saved to Dropbox from my Android phone. After noticing that I can now leave comments on my files (?), I discovered that the "Share" button, which on every other app on Android means I can just choose the App to share with, does not operate like that.

No, from the special snowflake Dropbox app you need to choose an email address to which it will presumably email a link url to the file. No, Dropbox, I want to share a file using another app, just like any other file in a folder on my phone.

Eventually I figured out that "Export" is what you need - deliberately hidden to force lock-in for unsavvy users. I understand why they do it, but the quora answer you quoted is now hilariously dated.

So, shut up. The Dropbox app on Android does not operate like a folder on Android.

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

#257

Post by derefr »

speeder wrote: post #54
bhouston wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SoundBlaster sold sound cards as well, but then sound cards got integrated into the motherboards and now only <0.01% of people buy sound cards.

What killed SBlaster was not motherboards having sound cards. It was movie studios convincing microsoft to ban from Windows the best featuresof SBlaster cards (those features are STILL banned by the way) because they were afraid of people using them to pirate movies. It is a reaaaaally long story, but to make it short: MS changed radically how windows drivers worked, and what a driver could do, during the transition…

So... modern audio drivers, used by a 3D game, can’t generate the same kind of environmental 8.1-channel signal that you’d find on a Blu-Ray?

If so, I’m surprised nobody’s hacked around that by now by just e.g. using the GPU in GPGPU mode as an pseudo-FPGA, dropping audio DSP logic onto it, and generating their “HD 3D” audio using that.

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

#258

Post by derefr »

untog wrote: post #96
speeder wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What killed SBlaster was not motherboards having sound cards. It was movie studios convincing microsoft to ban from Windows the best featuresof SBlaster cards (those features are STILL banned by the way) because they were afraid of people using them to pirate movies. It is a reaaaaally long story, but to make it short: MS changed radically how windows drivers worked, and what a driver could do, during the transition…

The vast majority of people didn't buy Sound Blaster cards for their advanced 3D sound rendering, though. They bought them to play sound at a level more advanced than a PC speaker, which is what most had at the time. Once motherboards integrated that there was no need for most people to buy a separate sound card. I know I didn't, especially when working out what you're spending your money on - video cards were far mo…

> They bought them to play sound at a level more advanced than a PC speaker, which is what most had at the time.

Yes, but why were they buying Sound Blaster cards instead of the much cheaper audio cards that were also on the market at the same time, but just didn’t have the same advanced feature set? The SoundBlaster, when it came out, was the “premium, workstation-tier” product of the audio-card world!

Are you suggesting the SoundBlaster’s rise was entirely down to 1. Brand recognition, or 2. even the top-of-market cards still being cheap enough that a strategy of “satisficing with the most expensive thing you can easily afford” would have led people to the SoundBlaster; and not at all to its differentiating feature-set from other audio cards?

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

#259

Post by vageli »

criddell wrote: post #228
vageli wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Spotify vs Google Play Music is the perfect showcase for this. They both get the job done but Spotify is better in so many small ways. Meanwhile, instead of being improved, GPM is in the process of being abandoned for the new shiny thing, Youtube Music. What degredation have you noticed that makes you think it is being abandoned?

When they shut down the artist portal they said this: > With the launch of YouTube Music last year, we eventually plan to replace Google Play Music with YouTube Music. In anticipation of this change, we are shutting down the Artist Hub. Source: https://9to5google.com/2019/04/03/google-play-music-shutdown...

Ah I had not seen this. Thank you!

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

#260

Post by techslave »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #255
techslave wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you are not permitted and will not get permission to list iCloud Control or any derivative work on software catalogue websites like Mac Informer or MacUpdate. that’s not a legal or enforceable license restriction.

Not my code, not my repo.

i assumed not. just pointing out a foible of the code’s author. it factored into my decision not to use it.
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