8 ms·

Mac and Windows means 'universal compatibility'? :(

by rethab 10y ago

_kyran 10y ago
To be fair, that's a decent start. Especially if you're looking at prioritising where your customer base is. Linux is important, but nowhere near as much in comparison for the average consumer/business.
- noja 10y ago
  It is a very decent start, it's just not "universal".
- zymhan 10y ago
  Dropbox is disproportionately popular with Linux users though, given their great Linux clients.
  - philjohn 10y ago
    That's as may be, however, what % of their users are on Linux is the question they needed to answer when deciding on initial platform support. Linux is also a much larger target than Mac OS or Windows ... different filesystems, desktop environments etc. etc.
    - pmontra 10y ago
      "different filesystems": maybe not. This new Dropbox thing is a network filesystem so it could just use normal syscalls to read and write files on any filesystem the ~/Dropbox directory and be (local) filesystem agnostic. After all you can bypass the problem by running a Windows VM in VirtualBox with guest additions and a shared filesystem. Is another way to map the Windows Dropbox's network filesystem to the Linux one, whatever it is. Still, very cumbersome and probably slow. I remember not stellar performances with sharing files between host and guest OSes in that way. Hopefully Dropbox will release the API and somebody will write a user mode filesystem to interface this new service.
    - pritambaral 10y ago
      > different filesystems You're looking at the wrong end of it. Dropbox doesn't have to deal with any filesystem, Dropbox instead needs to build a filesystem. It doesn't have to deal with any filesystem because Linux abstracts it. The same abstraction allows it to build its own filesystem really, really easily. How easy? I wrote, mounted, and used a filesystem in less than fifteen minutes. In node.js. It's that easy. > desktop environments Dropbox doesn't need to support various desktop environments, just a stable API for the desktop environments (actually, just file managers) to use. Isn't this how Nautilus, Thunar, Dolphin et al. already support Dropbox's existing features?
  - michaelmior 10y ago
    That may be true compared to other synchronization solutions on Linux, but I doubt Linux users make up a disproportionate amount of their customer base.
    - zymhan 10y ago
      No, but it would be a marked shift in their attitude towards Linux if they just never brought cool new features to it. Not saying they're doing that here, I'm sure it'll take time to implement.
    - noja 10y ago
      Linux users evangelise Dropbox more than other users.
  - codezero 10y ago
    I expect their revenue isn't disproportionately from Linux users though.
NikhilVerma 10y ago
I think it's an unfortunate situation resulting from the need to be realistic about releases. If something can be released now for > 90% of the users then companies will prioritise doing that and then releasing the remaining 10% later. The problem is when that remaining 10% takes way longer than expected.
- pritambaral 10y ago
  Or never :( Looking at you Google Drive.
- teach 10y ago
  And even though I've been a happy Linux user for more than a decade, 10% is very generous. Especially since this is only part of their Business product for now.
batat 10y ago
Meh... https://github.com/joe42/CloudFusion https://github.com/joe42/CloudFusion

Mac and Windows means 'universal compatibility'? :(

by rethab 10y ago

Mac and Windows means 'universal compatibility'? :(

To be fair, that's a decent start. Especially if you're looking at prioritising where your customer base is. Linux is important, but nowhere near as much in comparison for the average consumer/business.

noja 10y ago
It is a very decent start, it's just not "universal".
zymhan 10y ago
Dropbox is disproportionately popular with Linux users though, given their great Linux clients.
- philjohn 10y ago
  That's as may be, however, what % of their users are on Linux is the question they needed to answer when deciding on initial platform support. Linux is also a much larger target than Mac OS or Windows ... different filesystems, desktop environments etc. etc.
  - pmontra 10y ago
    "different filesystems": maybe not. This new Dropbox thing is a network filesystem so it could just use normal syscalls to read and write files on any filesystem the ~/Dropbox directory and be (local) filesystem agnostic. After all you can bypass the problem by running a Windows VM in VirtualBox with guest additions and a shared filesystem. Is another way to map the Windows Dropbox's network filesystem to the Linux one, whatever it is. Still, very cumbersome and probably slow. I remember not stellar performances with sharing files between host and guest OSes in that way. Hopefully Dropbox will release the API and somebody will write a user mode filesystem to interface this new service.
  - pritambaral 10y ago
    > different filesystems You're looking at the wrong end of it. Dropbox doesn't have to deal with any filesystem, Dropbox instead needs to build a filesystem. It doesn't have to deal with any filesystem because Linux abstracts it. The same abstraction allows it to build its own filesystem really, really easily. How easy? I wrote, mounted, and used a filesystem in less than fifteen minutes. In node.js. It's that easy. > desktop environments Dropbox doesn't need to support various desktop environments, just a stable API for the desktop environments (actually, just file managers) to use. Isn't this how Nautilus, Thunar, Dolphin et al. already support Dropbox's existing features?
- michaelmior 10y ago
  That may be true compared to other synchronization solutions on Linux, but I doubt Linux users make up a disproportionate amount of their customer base.
  - zymhan 10y ago
    No, but it would be a marked shift in their attitude towards Linux if they just never brought cool new features to it. Not saying they're doing that here, I'm sure it'll take time to implement.
  - noja 10y ago
    Linux users evangelise Dropbox more than other users.
- codezero 10y ago
  I expect their revenue isn't disproportionately from Linux users though.

NikhilVerma 10y ago

I think it's an unfortunate situation resulting from the need to be realistic about releases. If something can be released now for > 90% of the users then companies will prioritise doing that and then releasing the remaining 10% later. The problem is when that remaining 10% takes way longer than expected.

pritambaral 10y ago
Or never :( Looking at you Google Drive.
teach 10y ago
And even though I've been a happy Linux user for more than a decade, 10% is very generous. Especially since this is only part of their Business product for now.

batat 10y ago

Meh... https://github.com/joe42/CloudFusion https://github.com/joe42/CloudFusion