8 ms·

DropBox: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863

by olalonde 10y ago

bdcravens 10y ago
Good example, though aren't Show HN posts usually non-YCs?
- manuelflara 10y ago
  I believe the post was prior to Dropbox doing YC.
  - odabaxok 10y ago
    The title of the post says My YC app: Dropbox - Throw away your USB drive ...
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
Swizec 10y ago
> My suggestion is to drop the "Throw away your USB drive" tag line and use something else Heh. I started using Dropbox much later than this tagline and the first thing I did after installing was to stop using USB drives.
jen729w 10y ago
Amazing. This comment must compare to the famous Slashdot takedown of the iPod. "For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem. " (Not meant as criticism; we're all horribly naive in hindsight.)
- devoply 10y ago
  The point being most users are not power users. They just want stuff that they can get to work in 5 mins after a quick download. That's what a lot of geeks that have geeky solutions don't get. No one wants to do anything, they just want their cake for free preferably and they will pay money to eat it.
  - noir_lord 10y ago
    I am a power user and I still want the 5 minutes after a quick download, the two aren't exclusive and there is too much (IMO) pride in the 'this is difficult to use so I'm special for knowing how to use it'. I spend way too much time bashing heads with the rest of the software ecosystem these days.
  - skuzye 10y ago
    Heck I'm an engineer and I wouldn't want to setup a SFTP server to replace my Google Drive account
- erelde 10y ago
  On the other hand this comment from the same thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8917 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8917
- zerr 10y ago
  It's not amazing at all :) I still struggle to find a reason why should I use dropbox over ftp or any other file repository service. I guess marketing and creating artificial buzz played big role in their success.
  - briandear 10y ago
    Explain FTP to your mom and see how long it takes them to figure out how to do it. Also how can you FTP from an iPhone? How do you have local copies on multiple device stay in sync? How do you share a link to your file to a third party? I'm talking about normal people and not experienced engineers.
    - drdaeman 10y ago
      I did, and dad uses this to share files with friends, privately (I had eventually built a tiny Flask app that does access checks and serves same files over HTTP). It's just a network-connected external drive to him.
  - sgift 10y ago
    Comfort. The reason is comfort.
  - sergiotapia 10y ago
    I gladly pay $100/year to never ever ever EVER have to hear my wife complaining about me losing the pictures of us and the kids. You can't put a price on that my friend. :) Same reason I pay for iCloud storage on our family account. Peace of mind. Could I wire up some rsync contraption, sure maybe - would I sleep peacefully? No.
    - zepolen 10y ago
      Google photos is better for that.
      - kw71 10y ago
        So long as Google decides to keep the service operating, maybe.
- pjc50 10y ago
  No, I think we could have dismissed that one as ridiculous even back at the time. What power users need to always remember is how important usability by the uninitiated is when adopting solutions. This is why the market for security products is such a problem - they nearly always necessarily either put a barrier in front of common operations, or expose the user to the risk of losing their data by error, or hand all the difficult bits over to a commercial third party.
- icebraining 10y ago
  The Slashdot takedown wasn't naivety, it was CmdrTaco's honest opinion of the iPod. It's absurd the way he's portrayed to be making some sort of market prediction.
  - cmdrtaco 10y ago
    Thanks!
davisonio 10y ago
> 3. It does not seem very "viral" or income-generating. I know this is premature at this point, but without charging users for the service, is it reasonable to expect to make money off of this?

DropBox: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863

bdcravens 10y ago

Good example, though aren't Show HN posts usually non-YCs?

manuelflara 10y ago
I believe the post was prior to Dropbox doing YC.
- odabaxok 10y ago
  The title of the post says My YC app: Dropbox - Throw away your USB drive ...

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

Swizec 10y ago

> My suggestion is to drop the "Throw away your USB drive" tag line and use something else Heh. I started using Dropbox much later than this tagline and the first thing I did after installing was to stop using USB drives.

jen729w 10y ago

Amazing. This comment must compare to the famous Slashdot takedown of the iPod. "For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem. " (Not meant as criticism; we're all horribly naive in hindsight.)

devoply 10y ago
The point being most users are not power users. They just want stuff that they can get to work in 5 mins after a quick download. That's what a lot of geeks that have geeky solutions don't get. No one wants to do anything, they just want their cake for free preferably and they will pay money to eat it.
- noir_lord 10y ago
  I am a power user and I still want the 5 minutes after a quick download, the two aren't exclusive and there is too much (IMO) pride in the 'this is difficult to use so I'm special for knowing how to use it'. I spend way too much time bashing heads with the rest of the software ecosystem these days.
- skuzye 10y ago
  Heck I'm an engineer and I wouldn't want to setup a SFTP server to replace my Google Drive account
erelde 10y ago
On the other hand this comment from the same thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8917 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8917
zerr 10y ago
It's not amazing at all :) I still struggle to find a reason why should I use dropbox over ftp or any other file repository service. I guess marketing and creating artificial buzz played big role in their success.
- briandear 10y ago
  Explain FTP to your mom and see how long it takes them to figure out how to do it. Also how can you FTP from an iPhone? How do you have local copies on multiple device stay in sync? How do you share a link to your file to a third party? I'm talking about normal people and not experienced engineers.
  - drdaeman 10y ago
    I did, and dad uses this to share files with friends, privately (I had eventually built a tiny Flask app that does access checks and serves same files over HTTP). It's just a network-connected external drive to him.
- sgift 10y ago
  Comfort. The reason is comfort.
- sergiotapia 10y ago
  I gladly pay $100/year to never ever ever EVER have to hear my wife complaining about me losing the pictures of us and the kids. You can't put a price on that my friend. :) Same reason I pay for iCloud storage on our family account. Peace of mind. Could I wire up some rsync contraption, sure maybe - would I sleep peacefully? No.
  - zepolen 10y ago
    Google photos is better for that.
    - kw71 10y ago
      So long as Google decides to keep the service operating, maybe.
pjc50 10y ago
No, I think we could have dismissed that one as ridiculous even back at the time. What power users need to always remember is how important usability by the uninitiated is when adopting solutions. This is why the market for security products is such a problem - they nearly always necessarily either put a barrier in front of common operations, or expose the user to the risk of losing their data by error, or hand all the difficult bits over to a commercial third party.
icebraining 10y ago
The Slashdot takedown wasn't naivety, it was CmdrTaco's honest opinion of the iPod. It's absurd the way he's portrayed to be making some sort of market prediction.
- cmdrtaco 10y ago
  Thanks!

davisonio 10y ago

> 3. It does not seem very "viral" or income-generating. I know this is premature at this point, but without charging users for the service, is it reasonable to expect to make money off of this?