5 ms·

At least he's not the Dropbox guy

by 0des 5y ago

Issaclabs 5y ago
What does that mean? Can you explain?
- Operyl 5y ago
  This comment trivializing Dropbox: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
  - pooper 5y ago
    I for one do not think the comments trivialized anything. I see these as inevitable questions that a leader like Drew Houston should be prepared to answer at some point. Think of it this way, would you disqualify me if you were hiring and I asked a similar question at the interview? I think the underlying actual question for Dropbox to ponder (but perhaps not answer publicly) was "what is your moat?" without the business development language and at least for me that remains an open question. I remember I was in college when Dropbox started and I thought Dropbox was silly to offer more storage for inviting more users. It was easy to approach people and ask them to try something in college. I think I almost maxed out my invites. I remember feeling I was taking Dropbox to the cleaners... One activity question for HN: why do you think Dropbox continues to exist today while copycats like Barracuda Copy have failed?
    - sgbeal 5y ago
      > One activity question for HN: why do you think Dropbox continues to exist today while copycats like Barracuda Copy have failed? FWIW, i've been using Dropbox since practically the day they went online, and have been a subscriber for all but the first few months of that time. They've never once failed me, never been offline when i needed them, never lost anything, they created a Linux sync client out of the box (whereas Google first claimed the would make GDrive for Linux but never did), and it's easy to manage via multiple interfaces (mainly their own web UI and https://rclone.org https://rclone.org, which can proxy your dropbox behind an add-hoc FTP server running in your LAN). They're extremely pricey compared to the same storage in GDrive, but Dropbox has never let me down so i'm in no hurry to drop them.
  - belter 5y ago
    That comment is unfairly judged, taking into account how much they used AWS instead of their own solution. "...Half-a-billion people stored files on Dropbox. Well, sort of. Really, the files were in Amazon’s cloud. .." [1] [1] "The Epic Story of Dropbox's Exodus From the Amazon Cloud Empire" https://www.wired.com/2016/03/epic-story-dropboxs-exodus-amazon-cloud-empire/ https://www.wired.com/2016/03/epic-story-dropboxs-exodus-ama...
    - emteycz 5y ago
      Why can't a company use cloud? It's not like there's Amazonbox client I could install now and get the same service. Dropbox never was about the storage itself, IMHO - it was about the ease of usage. There were enough options to get storage - cloud or non-cloud - when it came out, but none of them had the easy folder-based sync and sharing (public folder) of Dropbox.
      - belter 5y ago
        It's not if the company uses cloud or not. It's if they are solving the hard problems or instead, outsourcing the technical challenges to their cloud provider while charging the user a non justifiable premium for the intuitive user interface :-) So it's about the eventual value add and the business case. The challenging part is to provide the back-end. Get massive storage, with proper checksum integrity, at a cost effective value and with flawless security. A single command (and minor variations around it): aws s3 sync <name_source_dir> s3://<name_target_bucket> get's you all that. It can be easily mapped to an intuitive user interface by a software development boutique in weeks. And because that is the difficult part, it seems for the first 8 years of their history that was solved for them by AWS, according to their own reported history. Sharing a folder or file from Dropbox is no more intuitive than using the S3 console. Looking at the very colorful history of security issues around Dropbox [1] it's certainly not safer. So why would a user pay more for storage costs than with a cloud provider, with notoriously less security? Does a tiny layer on top one or more cloud providers justify the add-on value for the user or the current valuation of 9 Billion dollars? [1] "Criticism of Dropbox": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Dropbox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Dropbox
techdragon 5y ago
This and the “no Wi-Fi less space than a Nomad” comments on slash dot about the iPod are my favourite examples of “you don’t get consumers” comments.
- ignoramous 5y ago
  to quote u/InGoodFaith (news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29555814): > Wouldn't also be HN without the misinterpretation of BrandonM's response. Here is dang's comment about that topic/meme: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29178442 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29178442
  - 0des 5y ago
    As someone who was there to witness it when it happened, that is not the impression I got at all, and I think Dang may have taken the more humble interpretation in that remark.
    - stavros 5y ago
      You don't need to have been there, though, as anyone can read the perfectly-preserved exchange even now.
      - recuter 5y ago
        And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth...
      - 0des 5y ago
        Lmao Stavros we should share a laptop or something or just speak over the phone the way we run in to each other so often. Its different reading it at the time because it factors in the context of the community at the time as well as the lived experience of what it was like at the time to be a member or participant in given discussions. With that contrast, you can then get an idea of the intent of those comments beyond just the words, as they are often (and in this case) reinterpreted through the lens of current day contexts. Example: ask what people think of the hit TV show The Apprentice today in the present, then hop in a delorean and ask someone before the trump presidency or candidacy what they think of the show.
stavros 5y ago
The Dropbox guy admitted he was wrong too, but we won't let him live it down. At least we don't remember his name.

At least he's not the Dropbox guy

by 0des 5y ago

At least he's not the Dropbox guy

Issaclabs 5y ago

What does that mean? Can you explain?

Operyl 5y ago
This comment trivializing Dropbox: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
- pooper 5y ago
  I for one do not think the comments trivialized anything. I see these as inevitable questions that a leader like Drew Houston should be prepared to answer at some point. Think of it this way, would you disqualify me if you were hiring and I asked a similar question at the interview? I think the underlying actual question for Dropbox to ponder (but perhaps not answer publicly) was "what is your moat?" without the business development language and at least for me that remains an open question. I remember I was in college when Dropbox started and I thought Dropbox was silly to offer more storage for inviting more users. It was easy to approach people and ask them to try something in college. I think I almost maxed out my invites. I remember feeling I was taking Dropbox to the cleaners... One activity question for HN: why do you think Dropbox continues to exist today while copycats like Barracuda Copy have failed?
  - sgbeal 5y ago
    > One activity question for HN: why do you think Dropbox continues to exist today while copycats like Barracuda Copy have failed? FWIW, i've been using Dropbox since practically the day they went online, and have been a subscriber for all but the first few months of that time. They've never once failed me, never been offline when i needed them, never lost anything, they created a Linux sync client out of the box (whereas Google first claimed the would make GDrive for Linux but never did), and it's easy to manage via multiple interfaces (mainly their own web UI and https://rclone.org https://rclone.org, which can proxy your dropbox behind an add-hoc FTP server running in your LAN). They're extremely pricey compared to the same storage in GDrive, but Dropbox has never let me down so i'm in no hurry to drop them.
- belter 5y ago
  That comment is unfairly judged, taking into account how much they used AWS instead of their own solution. "...Half-a-billion people stored files on Dropbox. Well, sort of. Really, the files were in Amazon’s cloud. .." [1] [1] "The Epic Story of Dropbox's Exodus From the Amazon Cloud Empire" https://www.wired.com/2016/03/epic-story-dropboxs-exodus-amazon-cloud-empire/ https://www.wired.com/2016/03/epic-story-dropboxs-exodus-ama...
  - emteycz 5y ago
    Why can't a company use cloud? It's not like there's Amazonbox client I could install now and get the same service. Dropbox never was about the storage itself, IMHO - it was about the ease of usage. There were enough options to get storage - cloud or non-cloud - when it came out, but none of them had the easy folder-based sync and sharing (public folder) of Dropbox.
    - belter 5y ago
      It's not if the company uses cloud or not. It's if they are solving the hard problems or instead, outsourcing the technical challenges to their cloud provider while charging the user a non justifiable premium for the intuitive user interface :-) So it's about the eventual value add and the business case. The challenging part is to provide the back-end. Get massive storage, with proper checksum integrity, at a cost effective value and with flawless security. A single command (and minor variations around it): aws s3 sync <name_source_dir> s3://<name_target_bucket> get's you all that. It can be easily mapped to an intuitive user interface by a software development boutique in weeks. And because that is the difficult part, it seems for the first 8 years of their history that was solved for them by AWS, according to their own reported history. Sharing a folder or file from Dropbox is no more intuitive than using the S3 console. Looking at the very colorful history of security issues around Dropbox [1] it's certainly not safer. So why would a user pay more for storage costs than with a cloud provider, with notoriously less security? Does a tiny layer on top one or more cloud providers justify the add-on value for the user or the current valuation of 9 Billion dollars? [1] "Criticism of Dropbox": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Dropbox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Dropbox

techdragon 5y ago

This and the “no Wi-Fi less space than a Nomad” comments on slash dot about the iPod are my favourite examples of “you don’t get consumers” comments.

ignoramous 5y ago
to quote u/InGoodFaith (news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29555814): > Wouldn't also be HN without the misinterpretation of BrandonM's response. Here is dang's comment about that topic/meme: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29178442 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29178442
- 0des 5y ago
  As someone who was there to witness it when it happened, that is not the impression I got at all, and I think Dang may have taken the more humble interpretation in that remark.
  - stavros 5y ago
    You don't need to have been there, though, as anyone can read the perfectly-preserved exchange even now.
    - recuter 5y ago
      And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth...
    - 0des 5y ago
      Lmao Stavros we should share a laptop or something or just speak over the phone the way we run in to each other so often. Its different reading it at the time because it factors in the context of the community at the time as well as the lived experience of what it was like at the time to be a member or participant in given discussions. With that contrast, you can then get an idea of the intent of those comments beyond just the words, as they are often (and in this case) reinterpreted through the lens of current day contexts. Example: ask what people think of the hit TV show The Apprentice today in the present, then hop in a delorean and ask someone before the trump presidency or candidacy what they think of the show.

stavros 5y ago

The Dropbox guy admitted he was wrong too, but we won't let him live it down. At least we don't remember his name.