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Steve Jobs was early, but not wrong about Dropbox being a feature and not a product. I just want a folder that syncs extremely reliably, that's it. They've gone

Steve Jobs was early, but not wrong about Dropbox being a feature and not a product. I just want a folder that syncs extremely reliably, that's it. They've gone down the corporate rabbithole and now call themselves a "smart workspace" whatever that means.

fullshark 7y ago
Well the corporate rabbithole was the only way they could turn it into a business, and not a feature as you say.
- cortesoft 7y ago
  Only if they wanted VC expected growth..... they could have just stopped adding new features, only had a few employees, and continued to make money charging a small amount for their single feature.
  - npo9 7y ago
    It’s very hard to have solid product, engineering, marketing, sales, and support on any scale without taking VC money.
    - toomuchtodo 7y ago
      Backblaze and Basecamp have, to name two.
      - scarface74 7y ago
        Backblaze does have one VC backer, but they aren’t pushing for exponential growth. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21016598 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21016598 They are cash flow positive though. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21006216 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21006216
        toomuchtodo 7y ago
        TIL. I thought they were entirely bootstrapped.
        scarface74 7y ago
        Yeah. I learned that after he responded to one of my posts....
        atYevP 7y ago
        Yev here -> yes, we have one VC backer from 2012. We wrote a post about it that sheds a bit of light on why (Thailand flooding played a major role): https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-raises-5-million-why-we-took-funding-after-5-years-of-bootstrapping/ https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-raises-5-million-wh.... TL/DR we have a capital-heavy business and the $2.5m cash infusion helped us weather hard drive prices going up 3x overnight.
        scarface74 7y ago
        This is very relevant to the discussion about Dropbox - which I really don't expect you to respond to being they are sort of a competitor (yeah I know -- not really https://www.backblaze.com/blog/sync-vs-backup-vs-storage/ https://www.backblaze.com/blog/sync-vs-backup-vs-storage/). But, how BackBlaze decided to run their business (bootstrapping) and how Dropbox decided to run theirs (VC backed early on and still not profitable), is the perfect example of how taking on VC funding rarely leads to a good long term customer focused outcome. Also of note, unlike Dropbox, Backblaze was able to release a new slightly more enterprisey product - B2 - without losing focus on the main product. On the other hand, it does take a certain amount of 'privilege" (yes I hate that word, couldn't think of a better one) to have five founders who could afford to not take a salary for a year.... But one criticism, any time you post a link to the Backblaze blog it should come with a warning. It quickly led me down a TVTropes type rabbit hole of reading more interesting articles.....
        7y ago
    - nefasti 7y ago
      not really necessary to have a solid product, on the contrary. VC money bring unreliable and not always user first agenda.
      - npo9 7y ago
        I’m seen really solid products go out of business while competing with inferior products with better marketing/sales.
- bigiain 7y ago
  That's true, but it also means their product is no longer the feature I want or signed up to. They can do what they like with their business. But I, like jonknee upthread, don't want their new changed thing, and an=m somewhat disappointed at having the feature I'm subscribed to turn into a product/business I would not have subscribed to if they'd told me up front.
bambax 7y ago
Maybe, but a feature that works is worth more than a product that doesn't. Dropbox always works, everywhere. I'm old enough to remember a world pre-Drobox (and pre-high bandwidth). I used to work at different places. I kept a laptop in each office, and carried with me Iomega disks that I synced every morning. It was slow and complex and error-prone. Alternatives from either Apple or MS will never work as well, they will always favor the platform they come from (if they don't eventually drop the others). It's not an overstatement to say that Dropbox changed my life; here's to hoping it never goes away.
- jchw 7y ago
  “Dropbox always works, everywhere.” This used to be true, but has gradually become less true. Linux support has certainly taken quite a dive. They also removed features I really liked. I used the Public folder a lot :( (I actually used to pay for Dropbox, because I genuinely thought it was a great product. It’s still probably one of the best syncing services, but at this point I’ve just moved off of syncing services.)
  - dheera 7y ago
    Yes, this. Them ending support for ecryptfs filesystems (they used to support it) is the main reason I'm considering ending my subscription soon. They took a massive step backward there and I am not happy about having to move my entire Dropbox directory to an unencrypted part of the filesystem.
    - bovine3dom 7y ago
      They rolled back those changes - they support quite a few filesystems again now. See the Linux section of https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/desktop/system-requirements https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/desktop/syste...
      - dheera 7y ago
        Oh awesome, thanks. I'll test that again and if it continues to work with my encrypted filesystems, I will probably stay a paying customer.
dheera 7y ago
That's probably because shareholders and investors blindly want unbounded growth while customers want them to just work. It's sad but the venture capital and public market ecosystem cannot support a lot of awesome things like Dropbox.
WhiteOwlLion 7y ago
My favorite Dropbox feature is folder point in time restore. It saved my hide a few times.

fullshark 7y ago

Well the corporate rabbithole was the only way they could turn it into a business, and not a feature as you say.

cortesoft 7y ago
Only if they wanted VC expected growth..... they could have just stopped adding new features, only had a few employees, and continued to make money charging a small amount for their single feature.
- npo9 7y ago
  It’s very hard to have solid product, engineering, marketing, sales, and support on any scale without taking VC money.
  - toomuchtodo 7y ago
    Backblaze and Basecamp have, to name two.
    - scarface74 7y ago
      Backblaze does have one VC backer, but they aren’t pushing for exponential growth. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21016598 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21016598 They are cash flow positive though. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21006216 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21006216
      - toomuchtodo 7y ago
        TIL. I thought they were entirely bootstrapped.
        scarface74 7y ago
        Yeah. I learned that after he responded to one of my posts....
        atYevP 7y ago
        Yev here -> yes, we have one VC backer from 2012. We wrote a post about it that sheds a bit of light on why (Thailand flooding played a major role): https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-raises-5-million-why-we-took-funding-after-5-years-of-bootstrapping/ https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-raises-5-million-wh.... TL/DR we have a capital-heavy business and the $2.5m cash infusion helped us weather hard drive prices going up 3x overnight.
        scarface74 7y ago
        This is very relevant to the discussion about Dropbox - which I really don't expect you to respond to being they are sort of a competitor (yeah I know -- not really https://www.backblaze.com/blog/sync-vs-backup-vs-storage/ https://www.backblaze.com/blog/sync-vs-backup-vs-storage/). But, how BackBlaze decided to run their business (bootstrapping) and how Dropbox decided to run theirs (VC backed early on and still not profitable), is the perfect example of how taking on VC funding rarely leads to a good long term customer focused outcome. Also of note, unlike Dropbox, Backblaze was able to release a new slightly more enterprisey product - B2 - without losing focus on the main product. On the other hand, it does take a certain amount of 'privilege" (yes I hate that word, couldn't think of a better one) to have five founders who could afford to not take a salary for a year.... But one criticism, any time you post a link to the Backblaze blog it should come with a warning. It quickly led me down a TVTropes type rabbit hole of reading more interesting articles.....
        7y ago
  - nefasti 7y ago
    not really necessary to have a solid product, on the contrary. VC money bring unreliable and not always user first agenda.
    - npo9 7y ago
      I’m seen really solid products go out of business while competing with inferior products with better marketing/sales.
bigiain 7y ago
That's true, but it also means their product is no longer the feature I want or signed up to. They can do what they like with their business. But I, like jonknee upthread, don't want their new changed thing, and an=m somewhat disappointed at having the feature I'm subscribed to turn into a product/business I would not have subscribed to if they'd told me up front.

bambax 7y ago

Maybe, but a feature that works is worth more than a product that doesn't. Dropbox always works, everywhere. I'm old enough to remember a world pre-Drobox (and pre-high bandwidth). I used to work at different places. I kept a laptop in each office, and carried with me Iomega disks that I synced every morning. It was slow and complex and error-prone. Alternatives from either Apple or MS will never work as well, they will always favor the platform they come from (if they don't eventually drop the others). It's not an overstatement to say that Dropbox changed my life; here's to hoping it never goes away.

jchw 7y ago
“Dropbox always works, everywhere.” This used to be true, but has gradually become less true. Linux support has certainly taken quite a dive. They also removed features I really liked. I used the Public folder a lot :( (I actually used to pay for Dropbox, because I genuinely thought it was a great product. It’s still probably one of the best syncing services, but at this point I’ve just moved off of syncing services.)
- dheera 7y ago
  Yes, this. Them ending support for ecryptfs filesystems (they used to support it) is the main reason I'm considering ending my subscription soon. They took a massive step backward there and I am not happy about having to move my entire Dropbox directory to an unencrypted part of the filesystem.
  - bovine3dom 7y ago
    They rolled back those changes - they support quite a few filesystems again now. See the Linux section of https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/desktop/system-requirements https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/desktop/syste...
    - dheera 7y ago
      Oh awesome, thanks. I'll test that again and if it continues to work with my encrypted filesystems, I will probably stay a paying customer.

dheera 7y ago

That's probably because shareholders and investors blindly want unbounded growth while customers want them to just work. It's sad but the venture capital and public market ecosystem cannot support a lot of awesome things like Dropbox.

WhiteOwlLion 7y ago

My favorite Dropbox feature is folder point in time restore. It saved my hide a few times.