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For something Dropbox-like in UI that you can point to your own servers, some options are:

* Git-Annex Assistant: Despite its name, git is sort of an implementation detail you can ignore. It doesn't actually revision-control all your files, so you don't get huge bloat with binary files that are edited. One nice thing it does is integrate syncing with offline storage, so you can e.g. set up a remote server to sync to live, *and* set up a USB-connected hard drive to sync to when it's attached. When the USB drive is offline git-annex will still remember what files were on it.

* Sparkleshare: a front-end that does version-control all your files, which might be preferable if you are sharing small-ish files where you might want to recover a previous version (e.g., text documents). Less good than Git-Annex Assistant if you're sharing huge media files, possibly better if you aren't.

See also this Slashdot discussion from two years ago.

There's http://sparkleshare.org/ if you don't mind using git to track changes. The only problem is git needs a bare repository to push and pull from, so you're still tied to a central server.

I don't mind using a central server to coordinate everything, but I don't want to store my data on it. VPS disk space is really expensive compared to dropbox after all.

They are also CPU hogging. I shared few folders just for fun of it, and set automatic start on reboot and everything. Few days later, my laptops are idle for hours, and they are still guzzling power. Fast check, it's btsync, and I presumed idle means no CPU usage, at least no 35%.

So I killed all four instances I set up for my test. For my needs, one closed source (d***box) solution is more than enough. At least it is not grabbing CPU when presumably idle. What I really need to do, most probably, is to spend time on http://sparkleshare.org/ .

i agree that git is a great tool, especially when i do not have to use it; as Linus Torvalds put it, git stands for:

1. “Global information tracker”: you’re in a good mood, and it actually works for you. Angels sing and light suddenly fills the room.
2. “Goddamn idiot truckload of sh*t”: when it breaks.

One specific use of git that i love, and where you never have to touch git at all, is SparkleShare, granted that i self host it in a mini NAS

Can anyone who has used Sparkleshare say if it would work in this situation? I'm looking at building a Sparkleshare server, which is described as an open source version of dropbox, but where you control the server. On some level, it doesn't look that hard to set up, but there are parts of it that still aren't explained well at the website.

But if you search for open source dropbox alternative, Sparkleshare shows up on a lot of lists.

http://sparkleshare.org/

If you want a user-friendly git-based backup, look into sparkleshare. But revision history is probably not important for most backup applications.

How about something more realistic like encfs and ssfhs, along with any cloud provider like Dropbox?
http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=encfs+ssfhs+dropbox
Or skip Dropbox because it costs a lot and host your own disks using SparkleShare, which is based on GIT, and all your GIT/rabbitshare experience with repos is applicable to their management, should you care to.
http://sparkleshare.org/

A private server + rsync may be a great setup, and one which I use myself, but it doesn't come even close to the functionality that Dropbox offers.

With Dropbox you get two-way sync between all of your devices. They have clients for most platforms (including Linux) and the software quality is top notch (at least for the platforms I tried - Ubuntu, Android and Windows).
Furthermore, you can easily share folders with other users and have everyone contribute to them. It's a great way to share vacation pictures, or documents with your family.

The only issue I have with Dropbox is that I don't really want to trust all of my data to them, and even if I did, I find the prices a bit steep, especially considering that I already have a server running 24/7 with a high(-enough)-bandwidth internet connection.
I'd love to be able to install a private Dropbox server and point my clients to it, but I understand that that would ruin their business model.

Maybe someday SparkleShare will be an alternative: http://sparkleshare.org/

You mean that if I learn QT, my skills can build a simple NAS doing something incredible like SparkleShare/GIT, and a mobile interface for my cheap Nokia?

yes

http://sparkleshare.org/

That does. Can be tweaked to IT's liking.

a $35, QT-programmable board

You mean that if I learn QT, my skills can build a simple NAS doing something incredible like SparkleShare/GIT, and a mobile interface for my cheap Nokia?

Disclaimer: I have a Nokia N900 which isn't precisely cheap, but still, I can develop a cheap, simple NAS and extend it to cheap mobile devices with relative ease? Wow.

SparkleShare is a free open-source Dropbox-like GUI for GIT repos. Once setup using passwordless PGP keys, non-technical users see and use SparkleShare exactly as they would DropBox. While under the hood is tried-and-true GIT source code version control. You can even set it up as PCI DSS since it only uses your own infrastructure.

On Ubuntu I also installed Rabbit VCS which gave me a range of right-click GIT options (like check-in, merge, etc.) Seriously, I failed earlier attempts setting up either Bazaar or GIT, whereas trying to get SparkleShare setup I finally succeeded and wow, this is a seriously cool project.

http://sparkleshare.org/
http://www.webupd8.org/2011/03/set-up-sparkleshare-with-your-own.html
http://www.moosechips.com/2011/02/sparkleshare-testing-ubuntu/#comments
https://github.com/hbons/SparkleShare/wiki/How-to-set-up-your-own-server
http://is101507.students.fhstp.ac.at/?p=33
http://www.instructables.com/id/SparkleShare-for-OSX-a-Dropbox-alternative/

[Note: To 'remove' a SparkleShare client from the infrastructure pool, revoke the PGP keys at the server-level.]

http://sparkleshare.org for the front end. Throwing a windows client together shouldn't be too difficult.

For the back end, gitolite on a central server with local mirrors at each office that are readonly. Configure client git repo's to push writes centrally and read from a local mirror.

I'm waiting for these guys to get their stuff up to release quality: http://sparkleshare.org/

I'm not brave enough to trust my data to them at this point, but it seems to be the most promising open-source dropbox replacement so far.

really "building your own" solution?

I appreciate that one could argue that using software you haven't written yourself shouldn't count, but putting something together with a Linux box running Apache, WebDAV and various other things seems more "building your own" than simply using an existing third party alternative, as the article recommends.

Personally, if you were going to use a third party alternative, I'd go for something like SparkleShare http://sparkleshare.org/

SparkleShare may be what you're looking for. I've had my eye on it for awhile, but I havn't used it yet.

---Alex

There are Syncany and SparkleShare, but neither seems to satisfy your requirements yet as they are still quite new projects and work-in-progress (without e.g. android clients afaics).

Sparkleshare is still under development, and it seems to have the most traction of any user-friendly project. When released, it will be the open-source Dropbox replacement.

I agree though, it's very hard to get rid of the convenience of Dropbox. Not just for saving files, but for syncing your configuration across machines (save your .dotFiles in ~/Dropbox and then symlink to ~/). But when they refuse to support the BSD's (2 out of the 4 machines I regularly work on), and their Linux implementation starting requiring disabling SELinux, they pretty much did it to themselves. Not to mention the whole thing where the Dropbox CTO admitted they could look at your files if they wanted.

Also, don't forget that DropBox is closed source, and you can't host your own server. So your private data is subject to one of those nasty "we can change the terms at any time" kind of agreements.

Compare with SparkleShare...

There is a project called SparkleShare that is in the works. There is no release yet, but I hope it gains momentum soon. It has the killer feature that DropBox doesn't have: you to host your own repository.

I work in a research lab at a university and we use DropBox all the time to collaborate with researches at other institutions. The 2 GB limit is a problem though, and we don't like relying on an external service run by a company. If DropBox's free 2 GB ever goes away, then we're in a bit of a bind.

Once SparkleShare is ready to go, I'm going to switch all of the labs I cover over to it.

---Alex

Sparkleshare is on the way there:

Unfortunately it hasn't been productized yet: no public sparkleshare services are available. You can use any public git repo (your own, github, gitorious) as a sparkleshare server, but that does have some downsides such as setup that is more difficult than a dedicated service would be.

Sparkleshare is also still beta so hiccups may be present. I've been using it as a dropbox replacement without problems though.