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I find the idea of dropbox amazing but I don't think I can bring myself to use it. I realized some time ago that I was moving into a world that I didn't like. I

by Dobbs 18y ago

I find the idea of dropbox amazing but I don't think I can bring myself to use it. I realized some time ago that I was moving into a world that I didn't like. I was closing my self off from my data, my services, and turning myself over to the control of others. See http://autonomo.us/ http://autonomo.us/ for a blog from this point of view. (Not my own.) What I would love is to have an open-source dropbox like tool that can be installed on my own personal webserver. Maybe thats a project to consider working on. If my skills extend that far. Edit: Clarified autonomo.us and fixed a spelling error.

quaismojo 18y ago
What I would love is to have an open-source dropbox like tool that can be installed on my own personal webserver its called "git". its trivial to set up a syncing service using any dvcs
- Hexstream 18y ago
  He mentioned trying this approach and not being satisfied: "The sweet penguin juice roaring through my veins commanded me to adopt a needlessly arcane solution, so I started putting all of my article drafts into a private Bazaar repository on my personal web server. Real men use distributed version control systems for everything, right? It was unnecessarily excessive and got cumbersome quickly."
drm237 18y ago
I know what you mean by this but with dropbox you maintain a copy of your files on every computer so I'm not sure I agree that you're handing over control. That said, I think they could sell a copy of their software (server and client) to companies and make a killing.
rudyfink 18y ago
I decided, at the end of the day, that I liked efficiency more than I liked control. I really enjoy control and doing it myself, but I only have so many hours in a day. I should direct those hours to ends where I am either more productive and competitive or personally satisfied.
- pmjordan 18y ago
  Control is one thing. As far as I can tell, although files are encrypted, DropBox have the encryption keys, which means the encryption isn't particularly effective for protecting my files. I realise that this is necessary for the web frontend to work. I'd consider using a DropBox-like service with solid encryption all the way through and no (or only a partial) web frontend, but in its current form, I'm not touching it.
netcan 18y ago
Dropbox is easy. It can be used by people that will never use the words 'my' & 'server' in a sentence. If you need to download it & install it on your own personal webserver, the tool is no longer dropbox-like. I'm not saying that what you are asking for is unreasonable, it just has very little to do with this.

by Dobbs 18y ago

quaismojo 18y ago

What I would love is to have an open-source dropbox like tool that can be installed on my own personal webserver its called "git". its trivial to set up a syncing service using any dvcs

Hexstream 18y ago
He mentioned trying this approach and not being satisfied: "The sweet penguin juice roaring through my veins commanded me to adopt a needlessly arcane solution, so I started putting all of my article drafts into a private Bazaar repository on my personal web server. Real men use distributed version control systems for everything, right? It was unnecessarily excessive and got cumbersome quickly."

drm237 18y ago

I know what you mean by this but with dropbox you maintain a copy of your files on every computer so I'm not sure I agree that you're handing over control. That said, I think they could sell a copy of their software (server and client) to companies and make a killing.

rudyfink 18y ago

I decided, at the end of the day, that I liked efficiency more than I liked control. I really enjoy control and doing it myself, but I only have so many hours in a day. I should direct those hours to ends where I am either more productive and competitive or personally satisfied.

pmjordan 18y ago
Control is one thing. As far as I can tell, although files are encrypted, DropBox have the encryption keys, which means the encryption isn't particularly effective for protecting my files. I realise that this is necessary for the web frontend to work. I'd consider using a DropBox-like service with solid encryption all the way through and no (or only a partial) web frontend, but in its current form, I'm not touching it.

netcan 18y ago

Dropbox is easy. It can be used by people that will never use the words 'my' & 'server' in a sentence. If you need to download it & install it on your own personal webserver, the tool is no longer dropbox-like. I'm not saying that what you are asking for is unreasonable, it just has very little to do with this.