Dropbox silently installed new file manager app on users’ systems • Hacker News Board

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

#261

Post by glhaynes » Wed, Jul 24, 2019, 7:18 PM UTC

derefr wrote: post #258

untog wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 sugge…

I think a ton of people bought them because they weren't that much more expensive and compatibility was such a headache in those days, it was worth it for the peace of mind alone.

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

#262

Post by jcranberry » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 2:55 PM UTC

0_gravitas wrote: post #154

tsegers wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's still one action more than is required for using a synchronization service. The killer feature is not having to do anything at all. I save my file on one computer, and it's available on all my other machines, my phone and anything with a web browser without a conscious thought at all.

I wonder how hard it would be to make a folder that automatically pushes itself to a git repo whenever it detects a change in its contents, I've actually been thinking about that for a bit now. The optimist in me thinks it can't be too hard, could be a nice project to do someday.

You could do it easily with a service which just indexes the files and periodically looks at most recently modified timestamps and then pushes if any of them are later than the most recent sync.

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

#263

Post by kellyjstyle » Fri, Jul 26, 2019, 7:30 PM UTC

techslave wrote: post #260

toomuchtodo wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm not at all a techie - but I have a question. I'm switching from a Windows + Apple world to just Apple. So I got scared when I read that using Dropbox can mess up your photos when using Apple's "Photos" program which I have always avoided. https://www.fatcatsoftware.com/comments/dont_store_your_phot... Anyway, I love Selective Sync - esp for photos. So there is not a solution to the iCloud problem?