4 ms·

Does 18.10 solve the Dropbox sync problem?

hannasanarion 8y ago
You mean the fact that Dropbox only supports unencrypted ext4 now? No, that is Dropbox's new intentional behavior, they have no plans to resume sync support for linux.
- marenkay 8y ago
  Couldn't you just fake it in a container pretending it was ext4? Apart from the real question: why Dropbox when you can rsync and others.
  - lorenzhs 8y ago
    Obligatory: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 (yes that's a four-digit post ID)
  - hannasanarion 8y ago
    ... because dropbox is cross-platform, user-friendly, doesn't require use of the commandline or configuring an upstream source, has a web interface, simple sharing with others, etc etc etc etc Those kinds of "can't you just..." or "why use [easy user-friendly popular thing] when you could [complicated nerdy feature-bare alternative]" answers are rarely helpful and typically come across as condescending. Yes, there are complicated containerized or fancy disk volume spoofing workarounds, and there are also alternatives (I like SpiderOak), but none are as simple as using dropbox was.
    - another-cuppa 8y ago
      That's the risk you run when you choose convenience over sustainability. If you spent some time and used syncthing you'd get something that won't just disappear some day.
    - marenkay 8y ago
      This was merely a technical question, whereas your reply was... far from appropriate.
    - Fnoord 8y ago
      I got 1 TB for free with TransIP STACK. They use encryption on their end, I use on mine as well (Cryptomator). Its cross-platform (basically their clients are a fork from OwnCloud/NextCloud), there's a web interface, simple to share with others, and it works on every filesystem AFAIK. No vendor lock-in. The only thing Dropbox has going for it, is that it was the first one which was both easy and popular when there was demand for it. That's all. Network effect example numero uno.
  - userbinator 8y ago
    Couldn't you just fake it in a container pretending it was ext4? Creating a workaround for Dropbox doesn't sound like a problem Canonical itself should work on.
  - marenkay 8y ago
    Considering the amount of harsh replies this got: I merely wanted to know if it is technically possible. Not if it is feasible, nice, makes sense. It was a question. Do not 4chan me.
    - Shish2k 8y ago
      If you wanted to know "can you use rsync?" (a technical yes/no question), perhaps you should have asked that, instead of asking "why use dropbox?" (a subjective preference question)? To answer the question of "can you use rsync instead of dropbox?" - yes, it is "technically possible" to use rsync to transfer files between multiple devices. I don't understand why you would ask this question though, because everything is "technically possible" if you ignore all the constraints that stop it from being possible...
      - marenkay 8y ago
        You did not read as well. The only question I asked was if you could fake the ext4 using docker. Nothing else. The rest does not have a question mark. You answered a question I did never ask.
        Shish2k 8y ago
        I assume English is not your first language? If you say "X? But the real question is Y", then it's quite valid to assume that "X" was hypothetical, and the real question was "Y" :)
  - Shish2k 8y ago
    > why Dropbox when you can rsync I've been thinking about this attitude a lot recently, and realising how much it's holding back open source - - since everybody said "rsync is good enough", we stopped innovating file sync tools in the 90's; and it was only when dropbox came along that we realised what we were missing, and now open-source is playing catch-up and is still behind (I'm using syncthing myself, but I still recommend dropbox to non-technical friends & family as it's easier to set up) - everybody said "IRC is good enough", and so chat protocol innovation stopped in the 80's (except for XMPP, which was a better protocol that never really took off because the implementations of that protocol were a mess); and now Slack & Discord have come along and eaten IRC's lunch, and again open-source is trying to clone those - "Mobile chat apps are dumb, don't bother creating one of those; you can just set up IRC on your phone, with ZNC as a bouncer on your server"... now closed-source closed-protocol whatsapp has literally billions of users, and no open-source open-protocol chat app has even 1% of that - VNC got made the standard remote-desktop tool, and has recieved only incremental improvements since the 90's. Last week I discovered Parsec, which is simpler, faster, lower latency, higher quality, and includes sound - which are all objectively useful traits for a remote desktop system. Why did the open source community never come up with a tool that's "similar to VNC except simpler, faster, lower latency, higher quality, and with sound"? There's no technical reason that we couldn't have created that in a free and open source way a decade ago - but we chose not to, because VNC was "good enough" Alas, I have no idea what can actually be done about this situation; and I have a minor fear that I'd be crucified for even suggesting "let's stop incrementally polishing all our 80's software, and use 30 years of hindsight to create something better" (witness all the resistence to wayland / pulseaudio / etc), but I'm open to suggestions...
    - marenkay 8y ago
      One thing you keep forgetting: your polished 80s software is running the world. Not Slack, not Discord. You can kill of Slack, no one will be less productive, have a worse work day. Shut down something old like shell scripting, and almost every IT company on this planet will be down for months if not years. If you want to improve, you have to start where it begins. Tech starts with small things, but not with Electron apps. Innovate for all tech people, and thus enable fancy stuff. Make shell scripting as good as writing shell tools in go. I am with you in terms of iteration and improvements but I get the feeling you have never had to deal with scenarios where guarantees needed to be given for life or death situations. And those are usually the reasons for things you find antiquated or odd. It's worth investigating, I promise.
- bpye 8y ago
  Wait, if I have ext4 on LUKS Dropbox will refuse to sync? That kinda blows. Any suggestions for a xplat alternative to Dropbox that works well for Windows, Android and Linux? Up until this Dropbox seemed like the best bet.

You mean the fact that Dropbox only supports unencrypted ext4 now? No, that is Dropbox's new intentional behavior, they have no plans to resume sync support for linux.

marenkay 8y ago
Couldn't you just fake it in a container pretending it was ext4? Apart from the real question: why Dropbox when you can rsync and others.
- lorenzhs 8y ago
  Obligatory: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 (yes that's a four-digit post ID)
- hannasanarion 8y ago
  ... because dropbox is cross-platform, user-friendly, doesn't require use of the commandline or configuring an upstream source, has a web interface, simple sharing with others, etc etc etc etc Those kinds of "can't you just..." or "why use [easy user-friendly popular thing] when you could [complicated nerdy feature-bare alternative]" answers are rarely helpful and typically come across as condescending. Yes, there are complicated containerized or fancy disk volume spoofing workarounds, and there are also alternatives (I like SpiderOak), but none are as simple as using dropbox was.
  - another-cuppa 8y ago
    That's the risk you run when you choose convenience over sustainability. If you spent some time and used syncthing you'd get something that won't just disappear some day.
  - marenkay 8y ago
    This was merely a technical question, whereas your reply was... far from appropriate.
  - Fnoord 8y ago
    I got 1 TB for free with TransIP STACK. They use encryption on their end, I use on mine as well (Cryptomator). Its cross-platform (basically their clients are a fork from OwnCloud/NextCloud), there's a web interface, simple to share with others, and it works on every filesystem AFAIK. No vendor lock-in. The only thing Dropbox has going for it, is that it was the first one which was both easy and popular when there was demand for it. That's all. Network effect example numero uno.
- userbinator 8y ago
  Couldn't you just fake it in a container pretending it was ext4? Creating a workaround for Dropbox doesn't sound like a problem Canonical itself should work on.
- marenkay 8y ago
  Considering the amount of harsh replies this got: I merely wanted to know if it is technically possible. Not if it is feasible, nice, makes sense. It was a question. Do not 4chan me.
  - Shish2k 8y ago
    If you wanted to know "can you use rsync?" (a technical yes/no question), perhaps you should have asked that, instead of asking "why use dropbox?" (a subjective preference question)? To answer the question of "can you use rsync instead of dropbox?" - yes, it is "technically possible" to use rsync to transfer files between multiple devices. I don't understand why you would ask this question though, because everything is "technically possible" if you ignore all the constraints that stop it from being possible...
    - marenkay 8y ago
      You did not read as well. The only question I asked was if you could fake the ext4 using docker. Nothing else. The rest does not have a question mark. You answered a question I did never ask.
      - Shish2k 8y ago
        I assume English is not your first language? If you say "X? But the real question is Y", then it's quite valid to assume that "X" was hypothetical, and the real question was "Y" :)
- Shish2k 8y ago
  > why Dropbox when you can rsync I've been thinking about this attitude a lot recently, and realising how much it's holding back open source - - since everybody said "rsync is good enough", we stopped innovating file sync tools in the 90's; and it was only when dropbox came along that we realised what we were missing, and now open-source is playing catch-up and is still behind (I'm using syncthing myself, but I still recommend dropbox to non-technical friends & family as it's easier to set up) - everybody said "IRC is good enough", and so chat protocol innovation stopped in the 80's (except for XMPP, which was a better protocol that never really took off because the implementations of that protocol were a mess); and now Slack & Discord have come along and eaten IRC's lunch, and again open-source is trying to clone those - "Mobile chat apps are dumb, don't bother creating one of those; you can just set up IRC on your phone, with ZNC as a bouncer on your server"... now closed-source closed-protocol whatsapp has literally billions of users, and no open-source open-protocol chat app has even 1% of that - VNC got made the standard remote-desktop tool, and has recieved only incremental improvements since the 90's. Last week I discovered Parsec, which is simpler, faster, lower latency, higher quality, and includes sound - which are all objectively useful traits for a remote desktop system. Why did the open source community never come up with a tool that's "similar to VNC except simpler, faster, lower latency, higher quality, and with sound"? There's no technical reason that we couldn't have created that in a free and open source way a decade ago - but we chose not to, because VNC was "good enough" Alas, I have no idea what can actually be done about this situation; and I have a minor fear that I'd be crucified for even suggesting "let's stop incrementally polishing all our 80's software, and use 30 years of hindsight to create something better" (witness all the resistence to wayland / pulseaudio / etc), but I'm open to suggestions...
  - marenkay 8y ago
    One thing you keep forgetting: your polished 80s software is running the world. Not Slack, not Discord. You can kill of Slack, no one will be less productive, have a worse work day. Shut down something old like shell scripting, and almost every IT company on this planet will be down for months if not years. If you want to improve, you have to start where it begins. Tech starts with small things, but not with Electron apps. Innovate for all tech people, and thus enable fancy stuff. Make shell scripting as good as writing shell tools in go. I am with you in terms of iteration and improvements but I get the feeling you have never had to deal with scenarios where guarantees needed to be given for life or death situations. And those are usually the reasons for things you find antiquated or odd. It's worth investigating, I promise.
bpye 8y ago
Wait, if I have ext4 on LUKS Dropbox will refuse to sync? That kinda blows. Any suggestions for a xplat alternative to Dropbox that works well for Windows, Android and Linux? Up until this Dropbox seemed like the best bet.