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Did the timelines seem awfully aggressive to anyone? (June 1 service stops, July 31 all data is erased) For a service that we were suppose to be syncing our li

by rkalla 13y ago

Did the timelines seem awfully aggressive to anyone? (June 1 service stops, July 31 all data is erased) For a service that we were suppose to be syncing our lives to, that seems like a really abrupt, customer unfriendly ramp-down. I would have expected something more like: 1. April 1 - no new accounts. 2. May 1 - can no longer add files to your existing account. 3. May - Dec - nagged/reminded constantly to pull your files down. 4. Dec 31 - All accounts closed, data "erased" 5. [BONUS] March '15 - Data actually erased to provide a few months of emergency recovery for the few folks that didn't know and are emailing frantically that their family photos are up there.

reidrac 13y ago
Apparently that's for free users, for annual subscribers "[...] the service will remain available until 1 June and data available for a further two months". Not that it changes things a lot, but two months is definitely better than one. They probably have data to back their decision. EDIT: I misread the post, there's not difference. Sorry for the noise.
- claudius 13y ago
  1 June through 31 July is two months?
  - keithpeter 13y ago
    61 days inclusive. I imagine the sync client will be producing a countdown in notification area and generally nagging the user each day. Disclaimer: not an Ubuntu One user.
  - reidrac 13y ago
    You're right, thanks. I misread the blog post.
jonknee 13y ago
Almost everyone will have at least one completely up-to-date copy of their files. It's just a matter of signing up for a competing service and re-uploading. Four months seems like a long enough time to accomplish that.
- diminish 13y ago
  For something as important as "file storage" 12 months would be a safer option to make sure everyone was alerted and reacted. Or Ubuntu may keep the files as torrents/tars after that for up to 12 months and ask for a payment of for download.
  - brewdad 13y ago
    The problem with an extended shutdown is that it eliminates any sense of urgency to act. If I know I only have 2 months to find a new provider, I'll start searching and migrating now. Give me a year, and I'll ignore the problem for 10 months before acting.
    - simias 13y ago
      Freezing the accounts would be enough to create this sense of urgency, you wouldn't be able to modify or upload new files on the system. You would have to look for an alternative at that point...
    - hrjet 13y ago
      Yeah, but it is better to cover for the users who won't be aware soon rather than the users who are aware but wouldn't care soon enough.
      - diminish 13y ago
        yeah that's what i meant. People in special conditions who won't check their emails may lose all files... freezing in 4 months and keeping for 12 months may ensure nothing valuable is lost.
    - deleted 13y ago
k_bx 13y ago
I don't think they are going to erase data from your devices, so I don't see a reason doing such a strange migration.
- rkalla 13y ago
  Oh, no I wasn't implying they were going to launch a campaign of evil and despair against their users :) Regardless, for an online backup/sync service, I think a very compassionate ramp-down plan is on the order of 6 months with a few secret months of emergency recovery in the cases where people "forgot their child birth pictures were on there!" and the like. If it wasn't a "backup your life" service, sure, a more aggressive ramp-down is fine... but for a service that tried for a few years to convince you to stick you life in it, I think it's overly aggressive. I can't imagine their burn rate is _so high_ that it is not something they could have funded for a few extra months. Anyway, just my opinion... a few of you have pointed out "how long does it take to move your data?" -- sure, if you are paying attention, have a stable/non-metered connection in a 1st world country and are always ontop of things the moment they happen... you are right, a few days maybe. I am thinking of that small 10-15% of stragglers that miss the emails, miss the announcements and legitimately have important information sitting in One and don't realize it's gone until too late. I'm pre-emptively feeling compassion for them :)
schmichael 13y ago
It was barely used and very easy to replace with free services like Dropbox. I'm sure the few users it did have are savvy enough to migrate off within the relatively short time frame.
- vii 13y ago
  The cost of switching is generally very low and it's quite likely that most people with data in the UbuntuOne system that they wanted to keep were already using another service like DropBox simultaneously. The biggest cost here is to the Ubuntu reputation. They stand on the promise of LTS releases: with the quick timeline for removal of support from what could be a critical piece of customer infrastructure they signal that they are willing to sacrifice relationships for convenience.
fzltrp 13y ago
Everyone will wait the last second to get their data back (and complain about the cramped service) anyway. And it's not like an OS upgrade which could potentially break your apps or lose your data. It's just a mattee of pushing the sync button to get all your data back on your local drive. People will largely have time to find an alternative solution or buy a small storage device until EOS. Afaic, Ubuntu is pulling the plug on a very good service in a reasonable fashion: we should be thankful they kept it running for so long.
Marazan 13y ago
Two months notice plus two months of shutdown time? Luxury. If you want to see abrupt then MochiMedia's 2 weeks notice announcement that they were going away and taking with it probably the largest ad network for Flash games along with metrics, highscore systems, versioning, distribution and more was abrupt!
ekianjo 13y ago
You're not familiar with most online services out there? Most of the time you get only weeks if not days before you can do anything about your data. This is actually better than most.
WayneS 13y ago
You seem to be assuming someone is using Ubuntu One.

by rkalla 13y ago

reidrac 13y ago

Apparently that's for free users, for annual subscribers "[...] the service will remain available until 1 June and data available for a further two months". Not that it changes things a lot, but two months is definitely better than one. They probably have data to back their decision. EDIT: I misread the post, there's not difference. Sorry for the noise.

claudius 13y ago
1 June through 31 July is two months?
- keithpeter 13y ago
  61 days inclusive. I imagine the sync client will be producing a countdown in notification area and generally nagging the user each day. Disclaimer: not an Ubuntu One user.
- reidrac 13y ago
  You're right, thanks. I misread the blog post.

jonknee 13y ago

Almost everyone will have at least one completely up-to-date copy of their files. It's just a matter of signing up for a competing service and re-uploading. Four months seems like a long enough time to accomplish that.

diminish 13y ago
For something as important as "file storage" 12 months would be a safer option to make sure everyone was alerted and reacted. Or Ubuntu may keep the files as torrents/tars after that for up to 12 months and ask for a payment of for download.
- brewdad 13y ago
  The problem with an extended shutdown is that it eliminates any sense of urgency to act. If I know I only have 2 months to find a new provider, I'll start searching and migrating now. Give me a year, and I'll ignore the problem for 10 months before acting.
  - simias 13y ago
    Freezing the accounts would be enough to create this sense of urgency, you wouldn't be able to modify or upload new files on the system. You would have to look for an alternative at that point...
  - hrjet 13y ago
    Yeah, but it is better to cover for the users who won't be aware soon rather than the users who are aware but wouldn't care soon enough.
    - diminish 13y ago
      yeah that's what i meant. People in special conditions who won't check their emails may lose all files... freezing in 4 months and keeping for 12 months may ensure nothing valuable is lost.
  - deleted 13y ago

k_bx 13y ago

I don't think they are going to erase data from your devices, so I don't see a reason doing such a strange migration.

rkalla 13y ago
Oh, no I wasn't implying they were going to launch a campaign of evil and despair against their users :) Regardless, for an online backup/sync service, I think a very compassionate ramp-down plan is on the order of 6 months with a few secret months of emergency recovery in the cases where people "forgot their child birth pictures were on there!" and the like. If it wasn't a "backup your life" service, sure, a more aggressive ramp-down is fine... but for a service that tried for a few years to convince you to stick you life in it, I think it's overly aggressive. I can't imagine their burn rate is _so high_ that it is not something they could have funded for a few extra months. Anyway, just my opinion... a few of you have pointed out "how long does it take to move your data?" -- sure, if you are paying attention, have a stable/non-metered connection in a 1st world country and are always ontop of things the moment they happen... you are right, a few days maybe. I am thinking of that small 10-15% of stragglers that miss the emails, miss the announcements and legitimately have important information sitting in One and don't realize it's gone until too late. I'm pre-emptively feeling compassion for them :)

schmichael 13y ago

It was barely used and very easy to replace with free services like Dropbox. I'm sure the few users it did have are savvy enough to migrate off within the relatively short time frame.

vii 13y ago
The cost of switching is generally very low and it's quite likely that most people with data in the UbuntuOne system that they wanted to keep were already using another service like DropBox simultaneously. The biggest cost here is to the Ubuntu reputation. They stand on the promise of LTS releases: with the quick timeline for removal of support from what could be a critical piece of customer infrastructure they signal that they are willing to sacrifice relationships for convenience.

fzltrp 13y ago

Everyone will wait the last second to get their data back (and complain about the cramped service) anyway. And it's not like an OS upgrade which could potentially break your apps or lose your data. It's just a mattee of pushing the sync button to get all your data back on your local drive. People will largely have time to find an alternative solution or buy a small storage device until EOS. Afaic, Ubuntu is pulling the plug on a very good service in a reasonable fashion: we should be thankful they kept it running for so long.

Marazan 13y ago

Two months notice plus two months of shutdown time? Luxury. If you want to see abrupt then MochiMedia's 2 weeks notice announcement that they were going away and taking with it probably the largest ad network for Flash games along with metrics, highscore systems, versioning, distribution and more was abrupt!

ekianjo 13y ago

You're not familiar with most online services out there? Most of the time you get only weeks if not days before you can do anything about your data. This is actually better than most.

WayneS 13y ago

You seem to be assuming someone is using Ubuntu One.