article on possible demise of dropbox

[woodsmoke]

This is an interesting article, I wonder what folks think about it in terms of UbuntuOne?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidcou...pbox-will-die/

woodsmoke

[SteveRiley]

Re: article on possible demise of dropbox

My take is that Dropbox allowed themselves to get marginalized to feature status because they've steadfastly refused to innovate:

• their free tier is only 2 GB, whereas most other online services offer more
• syncing only one folder rather than a full hierarchy
• delayed and incomplete API
• repeated instances of reported security problems
• until recently, unclear communications that having them manage your encryption key is essentially equivalent to having no encryption at all

SugarSync and Box.net, by offering far greater capabilities, are less of a target for OS absorption. Now if only SugarSync would get a Linux client out the friggin' door, I'd be one happy syncer.

[woodsmoke]

Re: article on possible demise of dropbox

Hi Steve,
Thanks for you great reply but I notice, by it's absence, that you eschewed the mention of UbuntuOne.

woodsmoke

[SteveRiley]

Re: article on possible demise of dropbox

That's purely because I'm unfamiliar with it. Looks like I have a little edumakshion to undertake.

[woodsmoke]

Re: article on possible demise of dropbox

well, considering that it is close to all Hallow's even don't get tooooo close to the undertaker!

woodskeerdofundertakerssmoke

[SteveRiley]

Re: article on possible demise of dropbox

The prognosis is not good.

• May 2009 - Luis Lopez logs bug #375145, "Ubuntu One should have a KDE client"
• August 2010 - Harald Sitter ("Apachelogger") announces work on KDE client for Ubuntu One
• unknown - client disappears or is blocked
• August 2010 - early alpha still available, no updates since, not a PPA, reported bugs mysteriously absent
• August 2010 - Apachelogger starts apparent parallel effort to create a KDE UI for Ubuntu One's single sign on
• October 2010 - nUboon2Age creates KubuntuOne community effort in LaunchPad, no activity thereafter
• April 2011 - No further work on KDE UI

It's times like this when I wish I could trade some of my security/privacy/analysis/policy-wonkishness for good solid coding skills...

[woodsmoke]

Re: article on possible demise of dropbox

Thanks for the interesting info SteveRiley.

woodsmoke

[jpenguin]

Re: article on possible demise of dropbox

I like dropbox, but I just 50GB Free for life with Box.net (sign up for a new account on iOS)

I glanced at UbuntuOne, but don't want to deal with no KDE client

I'm thinking about 100GB of SpiderOak to backup my next laptop...