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The new Dropbox

blog.dropbox.com

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Re: The new Dropbox

#261

Post by sciurus »

roel_v wrote: post #173
sciurus wrote: post #15

It looks like Dropbox is completely focused on the business market and not improving the consumer experience anymore. I've stuck with them for years because of the linux support, but am probably going to jump ship soon. My main complaint is the lack of a way to build a shared photo library with my spouse. Both Google and Apple support this.

But switch to where? All.the alternatives don't have the features and/or are even more unreliable (Google). If only Fastmail would build a product like this, them I would trust...

Switch to Google Drive and Google Photos, most likely.

I'd have local backups, so I don't think I'd trust it any less with my data than I trust Dropbox.

Re: The new Dropbox

#262

Post by ghobs91 »

liyanage wrote: post #203

I've been a Dropbox user for many years but I'm looking for a replacement. What drives me nuts and hasn't gotten better over the years is their truly awful Python-based macOS client software. It is constantly burning a ton of CPU/battery. It's always at or near the top of Activity Monitor's list in the Energy tab. It seems like their app constantly reacts to any file system activity, even if that activity is outside…

Maybe this is heavily dependant on the file structure of what's being synced, but I've tried Google Drive, iCloud, OneDrive, and Dropbox, and all but Dropbox have exhibited the CPU melting issue you describe.

Dropbox was the only one that managed to sync 10s of gigs in a timely manner, without spending hours "analyzing files" before starting to upload.

Re: The new Dropbox

#263

Post by Shorel »

atonse wrote: post #209
liyanage wrote: post #203

I've been a Dropbox user for many years but I'm looking for a replacement. What drives me nuts and hasn't gotten better over the years is their truly awful Python-based macOS client software. It is constantly burning a ton of CPU/battery. It's always at or near the top of Activity Monitor's list in the Energy tab. It seems like their app constantly reacts to any file system activity, even if that activity is outside…

Is this really true? wow. I'm shocked that a company of Dropbox's size hasn't built native clients for each platform (or rearchitected the core to be based on something like Go or Rust that is fast and cross platform, and just building the UI parts in the native frameworks)

Does anyone still build native clients for anything?

It seems no one bothers anymore, no matter the size of the company.

Any native clients we have now were built years ago and now they are only maintained.

I think nowadays even Audacity would be an Electron app.

Re: The new Dropbox

#264

Post by octorian »

brightball wrote: post #125

And the new desktop app is Windows and Mac only. Of course. My primary reason for using Dropbox initially when it first came out was because it was fully cross platform. The longer they go, the farther we get from that. The only Linux updates I’ve seen from them have been deprecating support for things.

And I wonder how long that'll last... I chose Dropbox because of the Linux support, as I actually use all 3 of the major platforms (Windows/Mac/Linux) regularly.

If I have to leave Dropbox, I honestly don't know what I'd replace it with. It works well enough on all 3 of the platforms I use it on, that I really don't want to switch to some janky duct-taped alternative.

Meanwhile, it seems like every other hot startup product has this somewhere in their FAQ:

Q: Will you support Linux?

A: Here at Foocorp, we all love Linux! Seriously, we're huge fans! However, we've decided that we can best serve our customers by focusing on our Windows (and maybe Mac) products and giving the middle finger to you annoying Linux users.

Re: The new Dropbox

#265

Post by shereadsthenews »

kyrra wrote: post #243
pgm8705 wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My previous experience with Google Drive was that it would chew up CPU and memory a lot more than I liked. I've been pretty happy with iCloud Drive since I switched to it. Works seamlessly and effortlessly on my Mac and iPhone, affordable pricing fo storage which can be shared with family, and also solves my photo storage needs with Apple Photos. The only drawback is the lack of shared folders, but they just announce…

(I work for Google, not on drive. Opinions are my own). Have you tried the newer drive client? Backup & Sync[0] replaced the old client and I believe is a bit better than the older client. If you are on GSuite, there is the Drive File Stream[1] that is a lazy-load of resources from a drive folder (which is why it's targeted for businesses only). [0] https://www.google.com/drive/download/backup-and-sync/ [1] https://s…

Backup and Sync for MacOS at least is a disaster. It locked me out of my account because when backing up photos, if it can’t figure out how to convert files to normal quality JPEGs, it uploads them anyway and your quota is charged. Then a month later when you start wondering why nobody sends you email any more you might figure it out.

Re: The new Dropbox

#266

Post by anderspitman »

asdff wrote: post #211
blowski wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree - grow or die. “Do one thing well” might work well for open source Unix CLI tools, but not for companies with shareholders expecting dividends. I wish it wasn’t that way, but that is how it is.

That's the issue with taking too much funding or going public. You become beholden to the profit margin and the quality of the product is completely irrelevant if it still prints money. You turn your company into a metastasis, demanding exponential growth, market share, and profit as the only metrics of success. What ever happened to just doing well enough to pay the bills, your employees, and a touch saved for a rai…

I agree with a lot of what you're saying, but I think with the self driving car example having diverse competing approaches helps avoid stagnating on a local optimum.

Re: The new Dropbox

#267

Post by karlding »

asdff wrote: post #241
jacobcohen11 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's because they were expanding too much and hiring too many people

Who provides dropboxes actual storage? That provider could just keep squeezing dropbox until the provider creates a copy of dropbox or has them bent over just to the point of them switching to another provider. Maybe dropbox should have been building their own data centers in the mean time, cutting their overhead. That idea of restraining growth in favor of long term stability probably wouldn't sit so well with the s…

I believe they have migrated most (if not all) of their storage off AWS to their own infrastructure [0].

[0] https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/15/why-dropbox-decided-to-dro...

Re: The new Dropbox

#268

Post by rootusrootus »

mirthflat83 wrote: post #231
pentae wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also just put the price up of the plus plan $20 a year. I already pay for iCloud so I don't know why I'm still a customer really. Laziness I suppose. I trust Apple with my data a lot more also.

iCloud doesnt offer file history though. Once you accidentally delete a file, it’s gone.

Apple claims otherwise:

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH27917?locale=en_US

Re: The new Dropbox

#269

Post by jxdxbx »

F00Fbug wrote: post #251

Not what we need! When they dropped support for XFS, I was locked out and happily went looking for a replacement. Syncthing ( https://syncthing.net/ ) does everything I need. Instead of some nameless cloud company hosting my stuff, my 'cloud copy' is a big USB hard drive on a Raspberry Pi. I still have to keep Dropbox because of a couple of multi-org projects I'm involved with use it. I'm done putting my personal stu…

I'd be interested in something like Syncthing, but it would have to have an iOS client that worked correctly as a file provider. Both Dropbox and Google Drive have half-implemented Files support (Dropbox doesn't work offline via Files even when Files are saved offline in the app, Google Drive doesn't allow you to create new files via the Files APIs, and both are pretty buggy all around).

Re: The new Dropbox

#270

Post by eropple »

Legogris wrote: post #259
liyanage wrote: post #203

I've been a Dropbox user for many years but I'm looking for a replacement. What drives me nuts and hasn't gotten better over the years is their truly awful Python-based macOS client software. It is constantly burning a ton of CPU/battery. It's always at or near the top of Activity Monitor's list in the Energy tab. It seems like their app constantly reacts to any file system activity, even if that activity is outside…

Have you considered Keybase KBFS for this? You get 250 GB for free, public/private with not too much metadata getting leaked, FUSE for desktop and also access on mobile devices. I haven't actually moved over to this myself yet, but it does look much better than Dropbox or Sync.com (which I stupidly am still subscribed for despite their client being even worse than Dropbox - but at least it's encrypted...) Nextcloud m…

I like KBFS a lot, but you have to be careful about trying to use it as a Dropbox-alike. KBFS is always-online. If you have no network connectivity, you have no files.

It's also not particularly fast.

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