4 ms·

> Similarly, before Dropbox we had options like XDrive from AOL, WebDAV servers, FTP, iDrive from Apple, and many others. We were awash with crappy software to

> Similarly, before Dropbox we had options like XDrive from AOL, WebDAV servers, FTP, iDrive from Apple, and many others. We were awash with crappy software to store our documents on a server and access them from any computer we were on. Amen! Don't be too hard on third-party vendors, though. Dropbox could only have been created after file-monitoring APIs became commonplace in OS kernels. If I've got my history straight these APIs were introduced because first Apple (Sherlock, Spotlight), then the GNOME guys (starting with Eazel's Medusa), and later Microsoft (after WinFS failed) wanted to do nearly-near-time full-text indexing. I remember that in Linux land these APIs were quite contentious and it took several iterations before they got them right. I'm not sure if the ideas underlying Dropbox were _that_ unique at the time, but their execution sure was exceptionally good. Still, some companies _were_ in a position to invent Dropbox before Dropbox did. The obvious ones being Apple and Eazel, since they had products that were monitoring the entire user file system _and_ they were selling WebDav storage!

silverlake 14y ago
Many already did. Ray Ozzie started Groove Networks in 1997 to do file sharing and collaboration, later bought by MS. MS also bought a file sharing company in 2005 to power Live Mesh. That MS failed to nail this market on their own platform is kinda' pathetic. There were a billion other companies before Dropbox. I've never understood the enthusiasm for Dropbox. It's all been done before.
- evoxed 14y ago
  I felt the same until I started using it. As boring as it sounds, just working and being easy enough for your grandparents to use is apparently enough to get people excited. The fact that it's been done (or tried) so many times before really just makes you appreciate it more. Yeah, MS, Apple, etc. all should've had this figured out years ago and yet they didn't. So boo on them, but it's probably for the better because now we have Dropbox and you can use it on your Mac or in Windows, on your iPhone, Android, or whatever...

silverlake 14y ago

Many already did. Ray Ozzie started Groove Networks in 1997 to do file sharing and collaboration, later bought by MS. MS also bought a file sharing company in 2005 to power Live Mesh. That MS failed to nail this market on their own platform is kinda' pathetic. There were a billion other companies before Dropbox. I've never understood the enthusiasm for Dropbox. It's all been done before.

evoxed 14y ago
I felt the same until I started using it. As boring as it sounds, just working and being easy enough for your grandparents to use is apparently enough to get people excited. The fact that it's been done (or tried) so many times before really just makes you appreciate it more. Yeah, MS, Apple, etc. all should've had this figured out years ago and yet they didn't. So boo on them, but it's probably for the better because now we have Dropbox and you can use it on your Mac or in Windows, on your iPhone, Android, or whatever...