6 ms·

Great article, but poor conclusion. He finds that Dropbox is untrustworthy, a finding that likely surprises no one, and reaches for iCloud as the solution. Why

Great article, but poor conclusion. He finds that Dropbox is untrustworthy, a finding that likely surprises no one, and reaches for iCloud as the solution. Why move into another walled garden driven by corporate interests? OwnCloud or a similar self hosted solution would be better. I just use NFS and a dead simple storage server to make ~/shared available on all of my machines.

erikb 10y ago
In many cases self hosted is better. One needs to consider that this also needs some time to maintain, though. Personally I also like ownCloud but still mostly use Dropbox.
pat2man 10y ago
What happens when you take a laptop to another network?
- Sir_Cmpwn 10y ago
  Everything freaks out, unfortunately. I would work on a better solution, but I'm not particularly inconvenienced by this issue.
  - pyre 10y ago
    Isn't a bit naive to think that your solution, which has obvious flaws is one-size-fits-all? I use cloud storage (e.g.) have access to my password file between my computers and my mobile devices. NFS shares on ~/share that only work on the local network don't really solve this issue.
    - Sir_Cmpwn 10y ago
      Did I say it was a one-size-fits-all, or that it was flawless? I also suggested OwnCloud before describing my own setup. All of your software choices come with tradeoffs. For my passwords I use pass and store them in a private git repo on a server I trust. http://password-store.org http://password-store.org
      - jsmthrowaway 10y ago
        Yes, you implied that you know better when you critiqued the author's choice to reach for iCloud and suggested your self-hosted 'alternatives' instead as better. Except the one you prefer is not an alternative. It's not even playing the same game. Some people are willing to spend their finite life building personal infrastructure and the rest pay others to do it. You conflate the two at your peril. The best decision I've ever made was to stop running all of my own stuff -- you get literal days back in your life. Days.
woah 10y ago
If you're going to use a Mac, you're trusting Apple already. How does using iCloud make you trust them more?
- Sir_Cmpwn 10y ago
  I wouldn't use a Mac, either :)
  - Myrth 10y ago
    And if you're using Ubuntu, you're trusting package managers, and if you're using Gentoo, you're trusting original developers (how often do you audit source code?)
    - Sir_Cmpwn 10y ago
      >And if you're using Ubuntu, you're trusting package managers, and if you're using Gentoo, you're trusting original developers This is correct. Consider, however, the motivations of the people involved. Apple's motivations are to make money from you. Debian's motiviations (intentionally avoiding Ubuntu here) are to make a good user-centric system. Packages are signed by named individuals that I can personally get to know and trust, and with an accessible process - I can download their package sources and build or verify or tweak them the same way that the maintainer can, report bugs and ask questions directly to them, etc. I trust this model much more than I trust the model of a company who, at the end of the day, has a bottom line and will make compromises to ensure it remains where they need it. Apple is very well known for using proprietary formats, adapters, you name it. Apple's cloud is also write-only, they intentionally make it difficult for you to pull data out of it and interop with other services. These decisions serve the company's interests, not yours. >how often do you audit source code? You would be surprised!
      - Jerry2 10y ago
        Who do you think employs vast majority of Linux developers? Who do you think writes they paychecks? Ever looked into who the biggest Red Hat customer is? Hint, it's the DoD.
ska 10y ago
"OwnCloud or a similar self hosted solution would be better." Perhaps better for limited use cases that don't really apply to the vast majority of Dropbox's user base. You start off comparing apples to oranges, and with your latter solution, you aren't even comparing to fruit anymore.
newman8r 10y ago
agreed. The cost of hard disk/ssd storage is constantly falling, I hate having my crap locked up in the "cloud" knowing that if I miss a couple payments it's toast.

erikb 10y ago

In many cases self hosted is better. One needs to consider that this also needs some time to maintain, though. Personally I also like ownCloud but still mostly use Dropbox.

pat2man 10y ago

What happens when you take a laptop to another network?

Sir_Cmpwn 10y ago
Everything freaks out, unfortunately. I would work on a better solution, but I'm not particularly inconvenienced by this issue.
- pyre 10y ago
  Isn't a bit naive to think that your solution, which has obvious flaws is one-size-fits-all? I use cloud storage (e.g.) have access to my password file between my computers and my mobile devices. NFS shares on ~/share that only work on the local network don't really solve this issue.
  - Sir_Cmpwn 10y ago
    Did I say it was a one-size-fits-all, or that it was flawless? I also suggested OwnCloud before describing my own setup. All of your software choices come with tradeoffs. For my passwords I use pass and store them in a private git repo on a server I trust. http://password-store.org http://password-store.org
    - jsmthrowaway 10y ago
      Yes, you implied that you know better when you critiqued the author's choice to reach for iCloud and suggested your self-hosted 'alternatives' instead as better. Except the one you prefer is not an alternative. It's not even playing the same game. Some people are willing to spend their finite life building personal infrastructure and the rest pay others to do it. You conflate the two at your peril. The best decision I've ever made was to stop running all of my own stuff -- you get literal days back in your life. Days.

woah 10y ago

If you're going to use a Mac, you're trusting Apple already. How does using iCloud make you trust them more?

Sir_Cmpwn 10y ago
I wouldn't use a Mac, either :)
- Myrth 10y ago
  And if you're using Ubuntu, you're trusting package managers, and if you're using Gentoo, you're trusting original developers (how often do you audit source code?)
  - Sir_Cmpwn 10y ago
    >And if you're using Ubuntu, you're trusting package managers, and if you're using Gentoo, you're trusting original developers This is correct. Consider, however, the motivations of the people involved. Apple's motivations are to make money from you. Debian's motiviations (intentionally avoiding Ubuntu here) are to make a good user-centric system. Packages are signed by named individuals that I can personally get to know and trust, and with an accessible process - I can download their package sources and build or verify or tweak them the same way that the maintainer can, report bugs and ask questions directly to them, etc. I trust this model much more than I trust the model of a company who, at the end of the day, has a bottom line and will make compromises to ensure it remains where they need it. Apple is very well known for using proprietary formats, adapters, you name it. Apple's cloud is also write-only, they intentionally make it difficult for you to pull data out of it and interop with other services. These decisions serve the company's interests, not yours. >how often do you audit source code? You would be surprised!
    - Jerry2 10y ago
      Who do you think employs vast majority of Linux developers? Who do you think writes they paychecks? Ever looked into who the biggest Red Hat customer is? Hint, it's the DoD.

ska 10y ago

"OwnCloud or a similar self hosted solution would be better." Perhaps better for limited use cases that don't really apply to the vast majority of Dropbox's user base. You start off comparing apples to oranges, and with your latter solution, you aren't even comparing to fruit anymore.

newman8r 10y ago

agreed. The cost of hard disk/ssd storage is constantly falling, I hate having my crap locked up in the "cloud" knowing that if I miss a couple payments it's toast.