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Google Drive's desktop client requires Windows or macOS. Google does not offer a client for GNU/Linux. Users of GNU/Linux will need to use a different solution.

Syncthing apparently has a public relay pool in case both devices are behind carrier-grade NAT.[1] But how well does Syncthing work if both devices aren't turned on at the same time? And what's the recommended way to copy Syncthing's 56-character friend codes across machines? Some IM network?

[1] "Carrier-grade NAT" is a network address translation layer that an ISP applies across an entire neighborhood to conserve IPv4 addresses. ISPs generally refuse requests to forward ports to a customer behind carrier-grade NAT.

Google Drive's desktop client requires Windows or macOS. Google does not offer a client for GNU/Linux. Users of GNU/Linux will need to use a different solution.

Syncthing apparently has a public relay pool in case both devices are behind carrier-grade NAT.[1] But how well does Syncthing work if both devices aren't turned on at the same time? And what's the recommended way to copy Syncthing's 56-character friend codes across machines? Some IM network?

[1] "Carrier-grade NAT" is a network address translation layer that an ISP applies across an entire neighborhood to conserve IPv4 addresses. ISPs generally refuse requests to forward ports to a customer behind carrier-grade NAT.

Mild thread-jack here - I understand exactly what you're saying, but I'm going to throw something else out there.

I've been using Free File Sync as a backup/migration tool for quite a while and there's a lot of automating that can be done with it. In fact I mostly used it while sitting at an iMac at my last job and I used it to migrate and backup accounts on both Mac and Windows machines. Believe it or not the file structure was so much the same you could migrate between Mac and Windows using it rather painlessly.

I've also been using Syncthing to keep document directories in sync between my various computers, along with some cron jobs that sync my desktop music/ebook/audiobook/and photo directories up to my server nightly incase I add something on my desktop it's backed up.

It just seems to me like all of the open-source software out there, along with software that can emulate a Time Capsule on the network, that the ODROID-HC2 is just begging to replace Time Capsules from Apple.

I've been playing with. Syncthing. I'm seriously thinking about using it to make an offsite backup, already my documents are synced between my laptop and desktop using it, I'm pretty sure it would work if I decided to "go big" with it.

• * KolabNow as an email provider instead of GMail. They have a good privacy policy, are hosted in Switzerland which has fair privacy laws, and costs about $3/month.
• * Syncthing for making your own open-source "cloud storage" as a replacement for Dropbox and Google Drive. I've played around with a few alternatives, but this was my favourite; it's very straight-forward to set up, fully peer-to-peer so you don't need a centralized server if you don't want one, and it has clients for most operating systems. The Android app lets you set it to only sync when it's on WiFi and/or charging.
• * Maps is an alternative to Google Maps, which uses OpenStreetMaps, the "Wikipedia of navigation". It doesn't have the same knowledge of local shops and restaurants as Google Maps does, but it is "good enough" for most of my needs, and in contrast to other clients like OsmAnd, the interface is actually quite slick.
• * CopperheadOS for my phone. It's still partially in the Google ecosystem, by being an Android distribution that requires a Nexus or Pixel. But Android itself is still mostly open-source, and this comes with all Google apps and services stripped out. (Lineage works as well, but Copperhead is more focused on privacy and security.)
• * Yalp. Some apps are simply not available outside Google Store (e.g. online banking apps in my case); this helps you install such apps without having to install the full Google Services platform on your phone.
• * Firefox Focus/Klar. In contrast to the usual Firefox browser, this new app is actually useable on a phone; and last time I checked it had better privacy settings than the Chrome browsers you find on most androids.

If you want a free alternative at some point, you could also look into Syncthing. I moved from Dropbox to Syncthing a few months ago, and have been very satisfied so far; it's decentralized, secure, and easy to setup. In my case, I also ended up with an always-on Raspberry Pi with an external harddrive in the same role as Dropbox' central server: a machine that's always available for syncing and that runs daily backups.

Another way they optimize revenue is by making sure that any shared files are credited to each user that is subscribed as if the whole file was stored for each user. When my brother shared a folder of family history photos and documents, there went my personal space. Which seems rather self defeating when you think of it - discouraging the reuse of files.

Dropbox is great until you actually try and use it. That little shared file gem, coupled with the fact that their client self-updates with no ability to stop it meant that dropbox was uninstalled. I got myself a Linux virtual server - 20GB of space and a dedicated KVM CPU (the company I use, CACloud, doesn't oversubscribe their physical cores) for $5 Canadian a month. With Syncthing being trivial to install, available for almost all platforms, and a fantastic (and effficient) way to share files, this gave me private cloud storage on a server I control. I trust a hosting provider in Canada far more than I trust Dropbox.

What we really need is a specialized cloud services Linux distribution. Cloud server in a box. Webmail, Syncthing, maybe even Wordpress if you want it. Plug in your domain name (or make money by setting it up so sell them on setup), and your average user can have their data entirely on infrastructure they control. I was able to set all this up, and I'm sure it's no great stretch for most users here to do the same. But it would be nice if it was plug-and-play easy for anyone to do this. Start putting a dent in people trusting their data to places that don't have any vested interest in it besides monetizing it.

Storage is cheap. If you think that Dropbox ever deletes anything you store there, then you are naive.

In general, if anything is free, then you are in some way the product. If data storage is free, then your data is the product. I highly recommend Syncthing. People need to keep ownership of their data.

Concur. Inexpensive virtual server hosting companies abound. For $10 a month, I have a Linux virtual server with a guaranteed dedicated CPU core and with SSD space far in excess of a free Dropbox account. It hosts my own domain names, Wordpress site, multi-domain email (with webmail) - in short, anything I need, I have on my own server. I can post anything I want and it will stay on my server as long as I want it to. My download links do not disappear. Software like Syncthing takes care of the synchronization features that Dropbox would give. My server. My data!

I am like you, I have been puzzled from the beginning in the allure of trusting data to outside sources. If it's free, then you are the product. If they are storing your data for free, then your data is the product.

A big benefit for those who aren't as technically inclined is a cloud services Linux distro. Domain, email/webmail, file sync, bookmark sharing in a box.

Or go open source and sync your files over to a friend / relative's home: https://syncthing.net

Find a friend, buy him a 2TB HDD, install and configure syncthing. Offer to do the same for him. Seriously, it's very good.

Or like this. BTW is open source.

Hold Alt (in Firefox, at least). Although that is certainly more of a pain than just clicking on a link.

You get bonus points if you actually give the right link too.

Try the open source equivalent of BTSync, Syncthing
https://syncthing.net/
https://github.com/syncthing/s...

Will it be open source yet? Because this is pretty nice: http://syncthing.net/

My problem with SyncThing is that it's too complex to set up.
In the end I managed to get my shares to work, but the amount of effort required to do it meant that I will probably never be able to share files with others as I do with Dropbox.

The bigger issue is that the difficulty isn't some quirk of the UI which could be fixed as the project matures, but rather what seems to be the concept behind shares, with "nodes" and "repositories" and other stuff which may be perfectly clear to the developers but was confusing to me.
I mean, look at this: https://discourse.syncthing.ne...
Generally, if your software product confuses someone with almost 20 years of experience in computing, you're doing it wrong (exception made for specialized software like CAD, etc.)

BtSync did this a lot more cleanly and I'm sad to say that until now I haven't found anything anywhere near as usable, even for all its quirks.

In fact SyncThing has recently de-merged with Pulse and is now back on it's own (see https://discourse.syncthing.ne...). Probably a good thing because Pulse is part of ind.ie (https://ind.ie/about/) which is a little too off-beat, even for me.

That being said, there's also Git-Annex Assistant (many people - on HN - swear by it, but I can never get it to work), Syncany, Filement, Sparkleshare - all decent sync solutions - though I think all lack the encryption & simple setup of BTSync.

I always end up with Unison + SSH.