5 ms·

I've been using Syncthing for about a year now, with multiple computers, and it's fantastic. Dropbox has become a real pain over the years (I've also been a pa

by jwr 5y ago

I've been using Syncthing for about a year now, with multiple computers, and it's fantastic. Dropbox has become a real pain over the years (I've also been a paid Dropbox customer for a long time): * adding bloat and features that I don't want or need * constantly nagging me for upgrades * lying that the admin password is required (it isn't) * consuming large amounts of CPU when anything changes anywhere in the filesystem If Dropbox had a subscription plan where I could pay to get just the basic file sync functionality, with no nagging, no prompting, and optimized CPU usage, I would be happy to hand over my money. But it seems the company is run by the marketing team now. I highly recommend syncthing as a very, very capable replacement.

deepsun 5y ago
> * lying that the admin password is required (it isn't) I love it, and turned on in Signal as well. Otherwise I'll forget it eventually.
salamandersauce 5y ago
I loved Dropbox. If they had a reasonably priced plan with like 50GB I would have subscribed in a heartbeat but they claimed it was impossible to do so all they offer now is like 2TB for $20 CAD a month which is far more than I need or want to pay. Then they neutered the free plan to 3 devices and I've mostly stopped using it.
- arepublicadoceu 5y ago
  The truth is: you’re not the customer that Dropbox wants. Not offering reasonable storage for a reasonable price is a way to keep users that they don’t want away from their service. Just like 1Password. They are extremely non subtle in pushing users that want local vault away from their customer base.
  - stjohnswarts 5y ago
    I didn't know 1pass had changed. Glad I ditched them for Bitwarden a few years back. However I think bitwarden makes their backend complicated enough to scare off casual users of it like me who thought about hosting their own backend :) .
    - nyolfen 5y ago
      https://github.com/dani-garcia/vaultwarden https://github.com/dani-garcia/vaultwarden
    - ValentineC 5y ago
      I'm looking forward to Bitwarden "client profiles" (connecting to multiple servers) to finally make the switch. :)
    - judge2020 5y ago
      1password has effectively made 1password 7 the last version that will support local vaults on desktop, however, the mobile app has indefinite support for local vaults (since they don't want to segment their app users based on subscription / local).
ryandrake 5y ago
Also: Questionable request for Accessibility permission. I was surprised to see Dropbox is still asking for this. I thought Apple put the hammer down on this behavior from apps long ago. You're supposed to only request Accessibility if it is for the purpose of supporting assistive technologies like VoiceOver, to help people with disabilities. Accessibility permissions have become something of a golden ticket or carte blanche for apps, allowing them to do just about anything on the operating system. Dropbox's dialog is vague about the purpose ("To get the most out of Dropbox") for requesting this superpower, so one can only assume that they are not doing it specifically to support assistive technologies like VoiceOver.
deergomoo 5y ago
> consuming large amounts of CPU when anything changes anywhere in the filesystem I don’t understand how this still hasn’t been addressed. On macOS at least (not sure about other platforms), rather than subscribing to filesystem events for the synced folders, it subscribes to FS events for literally everything and checks to see if each is relevant to the folders it should sync.
JohnJamesRambo 5y ago
https://craft.co/dropbox/funding-rounds https://craft.co/dropbox/funding-rounds
grimgrin 5y ago
Can you summarize what they maybe introduced/fixed to quell your old review? > over the last week, syncthing has corrupted my git repository twice. I reported this as an issue, but the issue was immediately closed with an explanation I disagree with. > I no longer trust syncthing until this gets resolved, unfortunately. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23660438 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23660438 — I would absolutely be syncing directories containing git repos, for better or worse
- stjohnswarts 5y ago
  I trust syncthing for singular/regular files but trusting something as complicated and interconnected as a git repo on it seems like a bad idea, especially if it's possible for two syncthing computers to act on the same git repo... I never really thought about trying it.
- JackMcMack 5y ago
  I sync a folder containing multiple git repos, never had a corruption happen. @jwr can you link the issue you reported? The only major issue I had was performance on TrueNAS/FreeBSD, Syncthing tends to keep a lot of files open. Increasing maxfiles/maxvnodes fixed it. [0] On a sidenote, what's the point of these limits if your entire system becomes unusable if you reach them? [0] https://jira.ixsystems.com/browse/NAS-104534 https://jira.ixsystems.com/browse/NAS-104534
- WesolyKubeczek 5y ago
  I had the exact same thing, granted, it was ten years ago already, with dropbox. Something something file versioning, ending up with neighboring files of conflicting revisions, the disease spreading over to all instances. My takeaway was „never keep git repos in a system that does its own distributed versioning”. I just do git push around so my remotes are up to date. Git is sort of dropbox with a manual gearbox, after all (and more, but that’s not the point). I’m really unsure that this is a kind of easily solvable problem for either dropbox or syncthing. Unless your syncing product gets smart enough to understand what a git repository is and how some files have to be checked in in lockstep, that is. Otherwise, expect race conditions.

by jwr 5y ago

deepsun 5y ago

> * lying that the admin password is required (it isn't) I love it, and turned on in Signal as well. Otherwise I'll forget it eventually.

salamandersauce 5y ago

I loved Dropbox. If they had a reasonably priced plan with like 50GB I would have subscribed in a heartbeat but they claimed it was impossible to do so all they offer now is like 2TB for $20 CAD a month which is far more than I need or want to pay. Then they neutered the free plan to 3 devices and I've mostly stopped using it.

arepublicadoceu 5y ago
The truth is: you’re not the customer that Dropbox wants. Not offering reasonable storage for a reasonable price is a way to keep users that they don’t want away from their service. Just like 1Password. They are extremely non subtle in pushing users that want local vault away from their customer base.
- stjohnswarts 5y ago
  I didn't know 1pass had changed. Glad I ditched them for Bitwarden a few years back. However I think bitwarden makes their backend complicated enough to scare off casual users of it like me who thought about hosting their own backend :) .
  - nyolfen 5y ago
    https://github.com/dani-garcia/vaultwarden https://github.com/dani-garcia/vaultwarden
  - ValentineC 5y ago
    I'm looking forward to Bitwarden "client profiles" (connecting to multiple servers) to finally make the switch. :)
  - judge2020 5y ago
    1password has effectively made 1password 7 the last version that will support local vaults on desktop, however, the mobile app has indefinite support for local vaults (since they don't want to segment their app users based on subscription / local).

ryandrake 5y ago

Also: Questionable request for Accessibility permission. I was surprised to see Dropbox is still asking for this. I thought Apple put the hammer down on this behavior from apps long ago. You're supposed to only request Accessibility if it is for the purpose of supporting assistive technologies like VoiceOver, to help people with disabilities. Accessibility permissions have become something of a golden ticket or carte blanche for apps, allowing them to do just about anything on the operating system. Dropbox's dialog is vague about the purpose ("To get the most out of Dropbox") for requesting this superpower, so one can only assume that they are not doing it specifically to support assistive technologies like VoiceOver.

deergomoo 5y ago

> consuming large amounts of CPU when anything changes anywhere in the filesystem I don’t understand how this still hasn’t been addressed. On macOS at least (not sure about other platforms), rather than subscribing to filesystem events for the synced folders, it subscribes to FS events for literally everything and checks to see if each is relevant to the folders it should sync.

JohnJamesRambo 5y ago

https://craft.co/dropbox/funding-rounds https://craft.co/dropbox/funding-rounds

grimgrin 5y ago

Can you summarize what they maybe introduced/fixed to quell your old review? > over the last week, syncthing has corrupted my git repository twice. I reported this as an issue, but the issue was immediately closed with an explanation I disagree with. > I no longer trust syncthing until this gets resolved, unfortunately. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23660438 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23660438 — I would absolutely be syncing directories containing git repos, for better or worse

stjohnswarts 5y ago
I trust syncthing for singular/regular files but trusting something as complicated and interconnected as a git repo on it seems like a bad idea, especially if it's possible for two syncthing computers to act on the same git repo... I never really thought about trying it.
JackMcMack 5y ago
I sync a folder containing multiple git repos, never had a corruption happen. @jwr can you link the issue you reported? The only major issue I had was performance on TrueNAS/FreeBSD, Syncthing tends to keep a lot of files open. Increasing maxfiles/maxvnodes fixed it. [0] On a sidenote, what's the point of these limits if your entire system becomes unusable if you reach them? [0] https://jira.ixsystems.com/browse/NAS-104534 https://jira.ixsystems.com/browse/NAS-104534
WesolyKubeczek 5y ago
I had the exact same thing, granted, it was ten years ago already, with dropbox. Something something file versioning, ending up with neighboring files of conflicting revisions, the disease spreading over to all instances. My takeaway was „never keep git repos in a system that does its own distributed versioning”. I just do git push around so my remotes are up to date. Git is sort of dropbox with a manual gearbox, after all (and more, but that’s not the point). I’m really unsure that this is a kind of easily solvable problem for either dropbox or syncthing. Unless your syncing product gets smart enough to understand what a git repository is and how some files have to be checked in in lockstep, that is. Otherwise, expect race conditions.