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> will be to use a standard self-hosting API What about rsync? It's an open protocol that can be used to synchronize data across multiple devices.

by 10098 14y ago

StavrosK 14y ago
It doesn't do two-way sync. Nothing syncs as well as Dropbox does, right now. Maybe AeroFS is close to it, though.
- chimeracoder 14y ago
  I've been using git-annex[1] to handle this problem. It doesn't handle the synchronization instantaneously via a daemon, but that's trivial to add. Plus, it requires neither a centralized canonical repository nor complete synchronization of every file (only fetch the ones you need). [1] http://git-annex.branchable.com/ http://git-annex.branchable.com/
  - StavrosK 14y ago
    That's very interesting, does it work well? There's a git-annex assistant, apparently, that works like Dropbox.
    - chimeracoder 14y ago
      I haven't used the assistant, but yes, git-annex works well. For example, my music collection is split across multiple hard drives in two different states - not by intention, of course; it's just what happens over the years. However, I can create a single folder on my laptop that organizes all of this music, even though it's far too large to fit on the laptop's hard drive. Even though the files exist on multiple hard drives, my laptop knows which ones have which files, so I know which hard drive I'd need to plug in to access a particular file. Better yet, since this is a fully distributed setup, there's nothing magical about my laptop - I have a desktop that has another copy of the repository, and it too knows where all of the files are (even though it has a different subset of my music collection). I can also back portions of the collection up without ever having my entire collection on a single drive. I can enforce redundancy - "make sure that three verifiable copies of this file exist on other drives before deleting it here". I can back up to Amazon S3 or Glacier. I can - well, do pretty much whatever you'd want to do on a non-distributed filesystem - except this is distributed. Dropbox is a great idea - I'm happy that it exists, and I see its value for a lot of use cases, but at the end of the day, it's not really solving the problem of distributed data; it's just creating a centralized, canonical data store in the cloud that is capable of interacting with other data stores. Dropbox is great, but at some point, it's nice to move on from SVN! :) Keep in mind, I'm not trying to do any sort of version control on my files - it's strictly a way of managing a completely distributed filesystem. If you want versioning, git-annex apparently can do some of this too, but I can't speak to it.
      - StavrosK 14y ago
        Huh, that sounds very nice. I don't have use for it, as all my files sit on a NAS, but it sounds very useful in other cases.
- Too 14y ago
  Dropbox does not sync well. I always end up with tons of files like "Person As copy of file x at date y". It only works if you are "working" alone with a folder and if you only use one device at a time. The problem is that this is the only way to handle sync safely unless you want to manually merge as in a SCM. This is why every attempt at syncing since the dawn of IT has always sucked.
  - StavrosK 14y ago
    That means that Dropbox syncs as well as it's possible for a program to sync, though, doesn't it?

> will be to use a standard self-hosting API What about rsync? It's an open protocol that can be used to synchronize data across multiple devices.

by 10098 14y ago

> will be to use a standard self-hosting API What about rsync? It's an open protocol that can be used to synchronize data across multiple devices.

StavrosK 14y ago

It doesn't do two-way sync. Nothing syncs as well as Dropbox does, right now. Maybe AeroFS is close to it, though.

chimeracoder 14y ago
I've been using git-annex[1] to handle this problem. It doesn't handle the synchronization instantaneously via a daemon, but that's trivial to add. Plus, it requires neither a centralized canonical repository nor complete synchronization of every file (only fetch the ones you need). [1] http://git-annex.branchable.com/ http://git-annex.branchable.com/
- StavrosK 14y ago
  That's very interesting, does it work well? There's a git-annex assistant, apparently, that works like Dropbox.
  - chimeracoder 14y ago
    I haven't used the assistant, but yes, git-annex works well. For example, my music collection is split across multiple hard drives in two different states - not by intention, of course; it's just what happens over the years. However, I can create a single folder on my laptop that organizes all of this music, even though it's far too large to fit on the laptop's hard drive. Even though the files exist on multiple hard drives, my laptop knows which ones have which files, so I know which hard drive I'd need to plug in to access a particular file. Better yet, since this is a fully distributed setup, there's nothing magical about my laptop - I have a desktop that has another copy of the repository, and it too knows where all of the files are (even though it has a different subset of my music collection). I can also back portions of the collection up without ever having my entire collection on a single drive. I can enforce redundancy - "make sure that three verifiable copies of this file exist on other drives before deleting it here". I can back up to Amazon S3 or Glacier. I can - well, do pretty much whatever you'd want to do on a non-distributed filesystem - except this is distributed. Dropbox is a great idea - I'm happy that it exists, and I see its value for a lot of use cases, but at the end of the day, it's not really solving the problem of distributed data; it's just creating a centralized, canonical data store in the cloud that is capable of interacting with other data stores. Dropbox is great, but at some point, it's nice to move on from SVN! :) Keep in mind, I'm not trying to do any sort of version control on my files - it's strictly a way of managing a completely distributed filesystem. If you want versioning, git-annex apparently can do some of this too, but I can't speak to it.
    - StavrosK 14y ago
      Huh, that sounds very nice. I don't have use for it, as all my files sit on a NAS, but it sounds very useful in other cases.
Too 14y ago
Dropbox does not sync well. I always end up with tons of files like "Person As copy of file x at date y". It only works if you are "working" alone with a folder and if you only use one device at a time. The problem is that this is the only way to handle sync safely unless you want to manually merge as in a SCM. This is why every attempt at syncing since the dawn of IT has always sucked.
- StavrosK 14y ago
  That means that Dropbox syncs as well as it's possible for a program to sync, though, doesn't it?