Dropbox 1.0 Finally Released

Zack writes "Dropbox has finally released version 1.0. The new version comes with hundreds of bug fixes, including invalid file names on Windows, weird Unicode normalizations, Word and Excel file locking, abnormal symlinks hierarchies, and case sensitive file systems on Mac. It also adds TrueCrypt support, a Rainbow Shell that offers support for extended attributes, selective sync, a new installation wizard, and reduces resource usage."

Comments

Dropbox folder

[Anonymous Coward]

The one thing I don't like about Dropbox (which is why I use Syncplicity) is that one must drop one's files into the Dropbox folder. This becomes a problem because it creates a duplicate of the file which just seems to waste space.

Re:Dropbox folder

[Anonymous Coward]

For smaller projects (100 MB), I'll put all of my work into the Dropbox folder and just work out of there. This keeps everything synced, even if I'm doing my work on my Mac OS X, Linux, or Windows partition. And if I need to step away from my desktop (my main working computer) and use the laptop for work, everything's ready to go after a short download. Dropbox supports automatically downloading from LAN too, so it really does "just work". Its truly seamless, with minimal hassles on the user's end required.

Re:Dropbox folder

[melchoir55]

This isn't how Dropbox is really intended to function. The idea is that you keep a file structure as child to the drop box directory. Therefore, whenever you modify files within that hierarchy, they are automatically updated. I have my school and research directory as child to my dropbox directory and find it to be a god send.

Re:Dropbox folder

[polymeris]

You can symlink instead of copying, no duplicate files and keeps your directory structure. I also set dropbox' folder to a hidden path: ~/.dropbox-sync, so it wont clutter my home.

Re:Dropbox folder

[R.Mo_Robert]

You can symlink instead of copying

Just to clarify, Dropbox does not recommend putting symlinks in the Dropbox folder itself. (When modified on another computer, it may get overwritten with just a normal file when re-synced, among other potential problems--I've had this problem with files, though I've had better luck with folders.)

Instead, move the folder (or file) to the Dropbox folder. Then, create a symlink to this location in the Dropbox folder at your desired original location. This is easy to do on Linux/OS X if you know the command line; on Windows NTFS, there is the DropboxFolderSync add on to ease the process, since NTFS links themselves are somewhat sketchy to deal with.

Re:Dropbox folder

[Anonymous Coward]

Download removed due to virus reports.

Re:Dropbox folder

[Shadow of Eternity]

Link Shell Extension makes it as easy to do as it is in linux, just right click in the right places and you're good to go. The only real trick is getting your head around the way they work.

Re:Dropbox folder

[kerohazel]

Virus or no, I would have removed that download link due to a horrendously ugly UI. Egads.

Re:Dropbox folder

[itsdapead]

The one thing I don't like about Dropbox (which is why I use Syncplicity) is that one must drop one's files into the Dropbox folder. This becomes a problem because it creates a duplicate of the file which just seems to waste space.

OTOH, anything synced by DropBox is being entrusted to the cloud, so confining it to a single folder is probably sensible. Part of Dropbox's USP is that it is pretty user friendly - its not really trying to replace rsync or git for power users.

Re:Dropbox folder

[xtracto]

My question is... has this version a "portable" edition?

It is funny how Dropbox is one of the number of apps that *had* a feature and was removed later.

Nowadays you have to go through hoops to setup a portable version :(

Re:Dropbox folder

[fast turtle]

Then you're using it wrong. What I do is simply keep the files I want synced in one of the dropbox folders and work on them directly - no dupes and problem solved.

Re:Dropbox folder

[Thinboy00]

If you're working with folders then symlinks are probably okay; if you're working with files a hard link may be the best of both worlds.

What is it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Neither the summary nor the "article" (from which the summary appears to be lifted near-verbatim) makes any mention of what Dropbox is. Very useful, Slashdot!

Re:What is it?

[Anonymous Coward]

You came to Slashdot for useful information, before checking Google or RTFA. That is your mistake.

The "Zack" that submitted the story pretty much plagiarized the first paragraph on the linked article, which was written by Emil Protalinsky. The linked article doesn't really answer your question. The first comment in the linked article reads:

"Dropbox allows you to store up to 2 GB free of charge. Dropbox reserves the right to terminate Free Accounts at any time, with or without notice. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, if a Free Account is inactive for ninety (90) days, then Dropbox may delete any or all of Your Files without providing additional notice. "

Gotta read the fine print...

Thus you find out it's a file upload service that can disappear your data KGB-style while you're off on summer vacation. But it's "free".

Good luck with the trolls.

Re:What is it?

[shree_ch]

Dropbox maintains a local copy of all of your files. So you don't actually lose anything.

Re:What is it?

[freedumb2000]

Comments like yours are not helpful. And they don't detract from the GPs point, that the summary is terribly written.

Re:What is it?

[maxwell demon]

But my files are already local! Do you possibly mean a remote copy?

Re:What is it?

[St.Creed]

Dropbox is several things at once, so I forgive your confusion :)

First, it's a cloudbased fileserver. You can upload your files and it will keep 2GB or more of them on the cloud (S3) for you to access. Not a big deal so far. If you pay money, you get much more space.

However, you can also give other people access to your files. And it will keep all the versions of your files. This is a bit more interesting.

THe real winner for me is that it's also a tool that you install on your PC or Mac or Linux machine. It will then use one folder (located under My Documents) and everything you store in there will be synced to the cloud. Version control and all. The tool will also inform you of any changes and if youre on a LAN with someone else whos syncing files, it will be synced to your PC directly.

Currently Im using DropBox to sync music files to a group of friends, and software updates to my customers who all have a link to a directory in the Dropbox directory.

However, the main thing I use it for is to sync ALL of my projectfiles with several other co-workers who only work on my project for a few days a week. One of them introduced me to DropBox. If anyone changes anything, I get a notification. Anyone makes an update you don't like, you can restore any previous version to any location you like. And it works without intruding, logs you on automatically and generally you don't even see it's there.

The onliest gripe I have is that you can't use TWO accounts, one for personal and another for business use, to link with the tool. And that all of the folders that you have a right to, are counted towards your total. So if a friend grants you access to his account and he stores 60 GB, you can still read but not upload anything else. Apart from that, it's a great utility.

Re:What is it?

[thetoadwarrior]

Must be your first day on the internet so here you go: http://www.dropbox.com/features

Re:What is it?

[Urkki]

Welcome to the age of google. Try not to hurt yourself.
http://www.google.ca/search?aq=f&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=dropbox

No. Simply, no. At least I make the decision to find out more about it (with Google) or not based on what information the writer cares to give to me immediately. If he doesn't care enough about it to even try to get me interested by just telling what it is, I'm not going to waste my time on it either. It can't be anything very interesting.

Re:What is it?

[Urkki]

How does anyone not know what DropBox is?

I figure it probably has something do with Dropbear and BusyBox. I mean, if it's not, why on earth did they choose name "DropBox", which is clearly combination of these two names?

(Yes, I do know what DropBox is at least superficially, so the "why on earth..." question above is actually valid, at least if you take the position that everybody should now every well known software package name.)

Re:What is it?

[TheRaven64]

Why would anyone? I've never heard of it. Drop box is the name given by a few operating systems to a write-only default share (i.e. something that other users can drop files in, but can't browse, download or delete things from), but it doesn't seem to be related to this fairly common usage.

Reading the comments, it seems to be some kind of remote share thing hosted in Amazon's S3 system, but that doesn't explain why I'd trust it with my data. Is it like tarsnap, encrypting your files as they are uploaded? Or is it just another version of i-drive and a few hundred other similar systems?

Re:What is it?

[TheRaven64]

There's a big difference between knowing nothing about technology and not having come across a specific commercial product. I'd never heard about drop box before this advert, and I still only have a vague idea - certainly no idea of why I should care about it. I've written three books about computing subjects, lectured on operating system design in a university, and actively contribute to three open source projects with Ohloh.net ranking me in the top 0.5% of open source developers, so I'd be surprised if you could justify saying that I 'know nothing about technology'.

Re:What is it?

[Man On Pink Corner]

Dropbox.com is the new Zombo.com. You can drop anything at Dropbox.com.

Re:What is it?

[itsdapead]

It is common knowledge and assumed you know what it is. If you don't then please leave the site.

How arrogant. Its a very valid criticism that the summary failed include any indication whatsoever WTF DropBox is. The point of a summary should be to give you enough information to decide whether you want to investigate further. Its more excusable (but still annoying) if you're talking about (say) some obscure branch of the Java acronym thicket, but DropBox is a firmly user-facing product.

We're not talking about including a 1000-word essay here, just "Version 1.0 of DropBox (the cross-platform, cloud-based file syncing service)".

Re:What is it?

[St.Creed]

Actually, they are my own CD-rips. I still own a lot of CD's from the pre-RIAAA days, when I used to buy CD's. And I don't download much (I don't like the hassle with bittorrent etc.), except the free stuff from people like Alexander May (http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/946). Actually, most of the music I listen to comes from YouTube at the moment.

Uploading my CD's isn't legal, but I really couldn't care less. And if Amazon decided to ban me, on what basis would they do that? I'm not their customer, don't have a login with them or any discernable key they could use to find me, and disappear completely in the huge volume of data transfers in and out of S3 storage.

However, if it actually was REALLY illegal stuff I was sharing that Dropbox could be legally required to scan for: DropBox supports TrueCrypt volumes that you mount inside their folders. See, they even cater to the paranoid :)

Re:What is it?

[b4dc0d3r]

Are you going to clarify every submission now? Cos that sounds like what you're volunteering for.

I clicked the link to Dropbox from the article and read up about it, which was a link to the blog. I understand it's just the what's new announcement, but your description and the what's new page make them sound like completely different applications. I did enough work to try to find out more about this thing, and still came back with the wrong idea. *That* is the problem here.

Why even post something in this manner unless it's just for page hits? I want to be informed, and without your post I would have been the opposite of informed, because I actually completely misunderstood what it does.

Re:What is it?

[inject_hotmail.com]

Zombo! That's awesome. The first time I saw that site (probably 11 years ago by now) I nearly pissed myself laughing -- "Welcome...to Zombo com. You can do -anything-, at Zombo com...the only limit is yourself!". What's most amazing is that it's the exact same...and that anyone else on the planet knows about it.

Re:What is it?

[shree_ch]

I phrased it poorly, sorry. Dropbox maintains a remote copy of your local dropbox folder. But this implies that you will have local copies of whatever is stored remotely; you still have your data if you're "off on summer vacation" and Dropbox happens to remove your account due to inactivity.

Re:What is it?

[St.Creed]

I don't think I'm going to clarify everything. Normally I'd agree with people who say "Google it" but in this case it's pretty hard to get any meaningful response if you Google it :)

You are correct about the article, and I think Dropbox's marketing could be MUCH MUCH better. But I'm using their product and I really like it, so I thought I'd clarify.

Re:What is it?

[gnapster]

In addition to allowing the remote synchronization of files, Dropbox allows users to (optionally) share the repository on a page that one can browse on the web. If Dropbox pulls the rug out from under your account, the remote copy is surely gone. That means no sync, and no web access. You would surely lose the remote copy.

I think that GP meant that when you sync the files in the local folder with the server, they are copied, not moved to the remote location. Thus, while syncing and other features are lost with the account, the local copy is not obliterated.

...But I could be wrong. I have never actually used Dropbox, much less had an account terminated by them.

Re:What is it?

[jroysdon]

I'm not sure why you cannot have two accounts. I have two accounts, and I have "linked" them by sharing folders that are needed between them (but I share the folders no one else). Seems to work just fine for me.

The only downside I could see is that I've got over 5gb of space on my first account, but have not shared the referral link with my second account yet. Once I get to 8gb on my first account (the max free space for referrals, etc.) then I'll change the referral link I share to be my second account.

Re:What is it?

[Guspaz]

That data is stored on S3, which itself is typically defined as cloud storage. If the concept of your data being broken into tiny pieces and stored in chunks on different machines in different places is not "the cloud", then perhaps you should just call it "geographically distributed clustered storage" or some such thing. But "cloud" works well enough.

Re:What is it?

[jo_ham]

And this is why neckbeards have an image problem, folks.

Re:What is it?

[hey!]

It is apparently software for illiterates. I followed the trail of links to the project's homepage, which consists of two links: "log in" and "watch a video". The "watch a video" link is a big shiny button, so I think they hope their user base will be attracted to the sparkle and accidentally click on it.

Re:What is it?

[LingNoi]

Better then some loser with more then three accounts running around modding all my posts troll. Nice move dude, you truly are the king of slashdot.

Re:What is it?

[jo_ham]

Interesting that you think that is me. For what it's worth, I have only one slashdot account: this one, and never post AC. I have 15 mod points, almost all the time, since I much prefer responding to points I disagree with rather than moderating them. Whether you believe that is entirely up to you.

Your paranoia that anyone who disagrees with you is out to mod you down with secret extra accounts with stored up mod points might make you want to look at *why* you feel everyone is out to get you.

Re:What is it?

[gonz]

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...

Re:What is it?

[St.Creed]

I'll compare it with SparkleShare:

- I have to compile and build my own tool, apparently.
- I have two colleagues on the current project and with me included we are using three operating systems (Mac, Linux and Windows). Five if you count the servers (Solaris and W2K8). We use Open Source and free stuff where possible since that usually works on all OSses we have: OpenModelSPhere, Notepad++, SQLDeveloper, etc. However, SparkleShare isn't out for anything except Linux.
- I have to find a secure dataserver somewhere. DropBox is SAS 70 type II certified. I'm not sure I can find a cheap replacement with the same security. One of my customers actually needs this type of written guarantee to satisfy the internal auditors.
- SparkleShare is v0.2, with serious lack of users and thus testing. I'm using DropBox in a production environment for all my customers. I don't want to be the betatester.
- About the agreement: If I need privacy for anything beyond the normal amount, I'll use TrueCrypt disks (supported by DropBox). I can't ever lose files, because they're only synced to the central share, not moved. So what do I care about the agreement? Worst case: I move to a competitor with less features. Big deal.

All in all, there are probably good alternatives out there but SparkleShare doesn't even come close to covering my needs.

Re:What is it?

[St.Creed]

Hi, sorry you're right ofcourse.

The reason I want two accounts is that I don't want the situation where someone accidentally drops a huge file in my personal space and I go over my quotum. This would also impact my business because neither myself nor my customers could upload anymore.

I can control this scenario in a business environment by adding a clause in my contracts. I can't control it in my personal space if I share that space with someone else.

So yes, you can do it as you say. But in my case that would be risky - so I want two separate accounts on one computer.

And what does it do?

[Okian Warrior]

Gah! Would it kill you to let us know what the heck it does?

Let's examine the announcement: Dropbox has finally released version 1.0 (but what is it?). The new version comes with hundreds of bug fixes, including invalid file names on Windows, weird Unicode normalizations, Word and Excel file locking, abnormal symlinks hierarchies, and case sensitive file systems on Mac (yeah, but what does it do?). It also adds TrueCrypt support, a Rainbow Shell that offers support for extended attributes, selective sync, a new installation wizard, and reduces resource usage (Awesome! But what does it do?)."

Follow the link and get a great press release. Let's examine *that*:

Huge performance enhancements (but what does it do?) Better user experience (Great! Is it something I could use?) Selective Sync (Also good. Is it useful for something?) Extended Attribute Sync (Another useful feature... or something.)

Follow the link to the Dropbox website, and you find this useful summary:

Our highest quality yet! (Good on you! What's it do?) Huge performance enhancements (Wonderful. Is that important?) Better user experience (Ok, this is just a copy of the press release.)

Go to the Dropbox "about" page, and get all kinds of interesting info:

Dropbox was founded by Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi in 2007, and received seed funding from Y Combinator (Academically interesting. What does it do?). Today, Dropbox is well-funded by Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, and Amidzad (Also good. For what?). Since launching publicly in September of 2008, we've attracted millions of users and are growing rapidly (Growing is good. Do you have a purpose?). We've been featured in the New York Times and on TechCrunch, and have won awards from places like PC Magazine and CNET (Great! Publicity is good. What's it do again?).

Our passion is making a product that rocks and putting it in millions of people's hands (Again, good on you. Still looking for a description of the product...).

If you're interested in joining us, we're looking for more talented people to join the Dropbox team, so be sure to check out our jobs page (Not right now. Can you give me some info on the product?).

Going to the home page is equally enlightening. An enormous button invites me download the product, or watch a video of some sort.

Sorry guys, but I don't download something unless I at least know what the heck it's supposed to do.

Re:And what does it do?

[FsG]

The dropbox home page has a huge, prominent video right in the middle of the page. Did you try watching that? It explains pretty well what it does.

Re:And what does it do?

[DMUTPeregrine]

Dropbox is a file synch program. Install dropbox, it creates a directory on your hard drive somewhere. All files stored in that directory are auto-synched to the server. If you install it on another computer (or phone, or whatever it supports) you can use it to transfer files, create persistent storage, etc.

Re:And what does it do?

[zaivala]

As one lake said to an identical lake, "My sediments exactly." Nice that they improved the product. Tell me why I want it.

Re:And what does it do?

[Anonymous Coward]

It allows you to take a box that you are in possession of (empty, full, 1/2 full, 1/2 empty) and drop it. Dropping boxes used to be a manual process, but with drop box 1.0 you get all the features of manual box dropping, but can drop them faster with all kinds of add ons!

Re:And what does it do?

[Frosty Piss]

The dropbox home page has a huge, prominent video right in the middle of the page. Did you try watching that? It explains pretty well what it does.

This is true, but a single paragraph could have done the same for those of us that resist clicky-clicky on long-winded promotional multi-media (especially when a single paragraph would have done the job...).

Re:And what does it do?

[yhager]

Yeah.. it happens a lot in this industry. What I usually do to get a quick introduction about something is to search for it in Wikipedia. They usually have a pretty good description of it in the first paragraph.

Re:And what does it do?

[Techman83]

To be fair it is a pretty awesome video.

Re:And what does it do?

[davester666]

As a bonus, you spend the first while finding this magical directory it creates "somewhere"... :-)

Re:And what does it do?

[Mysteray]

These guys make the "corporate mission statement" style home page look downright informative.

You know, it's almost as if they're afraid to commit to concrete definitions or something...hmm...do you suppose that perhaps even they don't have a clear idea of what the thing is?

Perhaps they could hire the "help I've fallen and I can't get up" ad agency. They are in desperate need of an identifiable problem (e.g. a broken hip) on which to hang their solution.

Re:And what does it do?

[Anonymous Coward]

It allows you to take a box that you are in possession of (empty, full, 1/2 full, 1/2 empty) and drop it. Dropping boxes used to be a manual process, but with drop box 1.0 you get all the features of manual box dropping, but can drop them faster with all kinds of add ons!

Aren't they the ones being sued by Throwbox for patent infringement? Stupid USPTO. Take a perfectly normal thing, like throwing (or dropping) boxes, put it on the net, and *presto*, a patent-worthy innovation. Now, even if Dropbox wins the case, they'll still have spent a lot of their time and money fighting what is essentially a frivolous lawsuit. I thought patents were supposed to help the economy, not hold it back.

Re:And what does it do?

[tftp]

The dropbox home page has a huge, prominent video right in the middle of the page. Did you try watching that?

I also tried to find a description, and failing that I stumbled upon that ginormous button. No, I haven't even considered watching the video. If a company with 30 employees and VC financing can't write one paragraph of text then I'm not interested in their videos.

Besides, a whole lot of people on Earth can passably read English, with a dictionary perhaps. In worst case they can print it and show someone. Many of the same people can't understand spoken American English well enough. This insistence on video looks a lot like arrogance.

Re:And what does it do?

[interkin3tic]

a single paragraph could have done the same for those of us that resist clicky-clicky on long-winded promotional multi-media (especially when a single paragraph would have done the job...)

Ah, but how do you know it's long-winded or promotional, or redundant with a single paragraph, until you click on it?!?

Come to think of it, how do you know it's multimedia? Maybe there's no text or sound in it! I guess if that were true, it would probably be even less clickworthy.

Re:And what does it do?

[aztracker1]

Well, the fact that i detects active changes, and has easy to install and use clients for Windows, Mac and PC (rsync not so much) and easy to use. With the benefit of web based access, as well as platform clients for various phones, etc... it goes a bit beyond rsync. The 2GB free account comes in handy enough, I use it to sync my application profiles and data between a few different systems (mac,win, lin). Good option for portable apps too (keepass, portable thunderbird, etc) I have a few other folders symlinked in my dropbox directory, and it works great.. local network syc & offsite backup. Not sure how well the truecrypt support is, but pretty cool imho.

If you pimp dropbox, you get an extra 250MB of storage per referral, up to 8gb of space.

Re:And what does it do?

[fremsley471]

You make me feel nothing but pity. Having to repeatedly ask a question like that shows how ill-educated and unimportant you must be. As all these exquisite descriptions tell you, the Emperor has magnificent clothes.

Why do you have to keep asking what they precisely look like?

Re:And what does it do?

[interkin3tic]

It also adds TrueCrypt support, a Rainbow Shell that offers support for extended attributes, selective sync, a new installation wizard, and reduces resource usage (Awesome! But what does it do?)."

I don't know how you could be confused, it's all very straightforward.

You got some seashells or snail shells that are dull and lacking color? Rainbow shell takes care of that. You click a box, and a team of painters is alerted to paint any and all shells you have in your house.

Selective sync is a sync that is just very picky.

The new installation wizard was trained at hogwarts to install household appliances. He doesn't use magic to do it, but he gets to your house using magic, so you don't have to wait around all day. You have to pay him in gold galleons, but they hope to fix that in 1.1.

Resource reduction is simple: They shut off your electricity and water.

TrueCrypt support? If you happen to find yourself in a crypt, and that crypt isn't fake, they support you emotionally.

Re:And what does it do?

[RobbieCrash]

Have you been living under a rock for the last 3 years? What self-respecting nerd doesn't know what Dropbox is?

It's like a frat boy not knowing what rufies are.

Re:And what does it do?

[MechaStreisand]

The new installation wizard was trained at hogwarts to install household appliances...

Thank you for that. That was the first thing on Slashdot that made me laugh out loud in... weeks, I think.

Re:And what does it do?

[socsoc]

Everything you pointed out illustrates why it's such an awesome video!

Re:And what does it do?

[socsoc]

And by everyone who follows any sort of technology news website...

Re:And what does it do?

[thetoadwarrior]

Old people and the internet. It's always good for a laugh.

Re:And what does it do?

[thetoadwarrior]

From what I can tell adrive isn't anything like dropbox. It's ad supported for the free account and their client is an Adobe AIR application that only runs on Windows, Mac and Linux where as Dropbox runs on those, Android, iPhone/iPad and blackberry. It has an API to integrate it into your site / application and there are no ads at all.

If I weren't going to use dropbox I'd personally go back to http://www.rsync.net/ because their support is awesome, it's cheap and while it has no free option it sounds like an all around better deal than adrive

Re:And what does it do?

[GreatBunzinni]

Because most of us aren't morons who need to have a full multimedia presentation with cartoons and pretty animations in order to just learn what a product and/or a service does. In this particular case a single sentence would do just nicely: dropbox is an online file repository that also provides a software program that automatically keep files in sync in multiple computers. Nothing more, nothing less.

Re:And what does it do?

[DaFallus]

How many other articles on Slashdot assume that everyone already knows about the software/technology being dicussed? And how many posts get modded up for ripping someone a new one because they presumably work in the IT industry but have not heard about said product? Now the rubberband is on the other claw!

Re:And what does it do?

[RobertLTux]

and find out in about 20 seconds that its put in #user home#\My Documents\dropbox\ you also can open the little tray applet and use the "open dropbox folder" function

Re:And what does it do?

[Anonymous Coward]

Then you could look at their features page or look at the dropbox entry on wikipedia.

Why? It's probably something pretty useless or boring, if even those with interest in it don't bother to write even a few words about what it is. If they don't care about it, why should I?

Re:And what does it do?

[Jesus_666]

I found it very instructional. I learned that Dropbox gives you auto-rsyncing folders that translate features such as resource forks, ACLs and symlinks transparently across operating systems and filesystems and mirrors everything to unlimited storage on a Dropbox-provided server, all free of charge (they did never mention any limits or prices after all).

To be honest, the unlimited free webspace sounds worth it by itself, although I'd imagine the service to be aggressively ad-supported and I don't know if I'm comfortable with Dropbox going through my documents in order to deliver targeted advertisement.

Re:And what does it do?

[Jesus_666]

It's considered a staple of decent journalism to give at least a few words of explanation of what you're talking about for the convenience of readers who aren't already familiar with the subject. Even though Slashdot mainly just reports on other people's reports on something, it would behoove the editors to adhere to some minimal standards like making sense to people who don't already know what the article says.

Plus, if you follow your logic through to the end, why would Slashdot tell us what they changed with 1.0? After all I can just search for the Dropbox blog if I care, so the entire summary could be reduced to: "Dropbox has reached version 1.0."

Re:And what does it do?

[ardle]

Thank you for taking the time to illustrate how far from "news" that was.
I eventually played the video and towards the end of it I began to get an idea what Dropbox is: a cross-platform shared drive (like X-drive was for Windows?) hosted by a 3rd party.
Useful if you don't have Samba or NFS and VPN.
They're not getting my music collection!

Re:And what does it do?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, but dropbox is known through the valley and every other hot spot of tech startups.

I didn't know what it was and now I don't care.

Re:And what does it do?

[Asclepius99]

Clearly anyone interested in Dropbox would have already followed the blog, so I don't see why Slashdot should post any stories relating to it.

Re:And what does it do?

[__aaqvdr516]

Yeah, you actually have to click on download from the page linked in the article to find out what it does. Even on their main website, you're presented with is a big download button without any explanation. http://www.dropbox.com/ You can watch a video (I didn't) that may enlighten you. If you follow the link in the article to their download page you get...

"Dropbox allows you to sync your files online and across your computers automatically.

Put your files into your Dropbox folder on one computer, and they'll automatically appear on any of your other computers that also have Dropbox installed (Windows, Mac, and Linux). You can even download Dropbox apps for your smartphone or mobile device (iPhone, iPad, Android, and Blackberry). Everything in your Dropbox is available from the Dropbox website, too. "

Slashvertisement...what the hell is going on around here?

Re:And what does it do?

[thetoadwarrior]

It's considered a staple of decent journalism to give at least a few words of explanation of what you're talking about for the convenience of readers who aren't already familiar with the subject.

I agree but Slashdot hasn't ever had decent journalism before. Why are you expecting it now? ;-)

Re:And what does it do?

[SWestrup]

Gah! Would it kill you to let us know what the heck it does?

I agree completely. You think they could at least have copied the first few lines of the Wikipedia article about them:

"Dropbox is a Web-based file hosting service operated by Dropbox, Inc. which uses cloud computing to enable users to store and share files and folders with others across the Internet using file synchronization."

Would that have been too hard?

Re:And what does it do?

[Jesus_666]

Touché. Well played, sir.

Re:And what does it do?

[xtracto]

Deffinitely...

a huge, prominent video right in the middle of the page

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAwwwwwnnn... I hate watching videos, specially when I just want to know a brief description of a technology.

I don't want to know HOW; I want to know WHAT. Isn't it what they teach you in business 101... have a clear and concise summary of your idea.

Re:And what does it do?

[xtracto]

THANK YOU! my thoughts exactly. Please mod this guy up.

Re:And what does it do?

[LordVader717]

It's actually more useful than that. When you edit or create a file it updated on your hard drive first and uploads to the server in the background. When you turn on another machine it downloads the changes from their blazing fast server. Because it's then on your hard drive it's much more responsive than other network storage solutions.

So it's godsend if you have a slow or asymmetrical Internet connection, doesn't require an always-on server, will work even without a connection and is generally much more robust.
Now, you can of course set up a similar solution with rsync and some non-trivial update scripts on each system but it still wouldn't be as fast as Dropbox.

Re:And what does it do?

[sstern]

There are no ads.

Re:And what does it do?

[Jesus_666]

There is no unlimited webspace either but that's what I would have taken from the video if I didn't have a propri knowledge to the contrary.

Re:And what does it do?

[gnapster]

The ones who need a version control system more powerful and versatile than what Dropbox offers??

Re:And what does it do?

[RobbieCrash]

Dropbox has version control.

Even if it doesn't suit your needs, you'd still have to know what it is to know that it didn't.

Re:And what does it do?

[gnapster]

If it doesn't suit my needs, I will not spend long enough on the obfuscated web site to discover that I am wasting my time.

I know it has version control. I never said it didn't. I said it was not as powerful and versatile as other version control systems.

Does Dropbox allow you to make notes on changes made to the working copy? Does it make it easy to branch and merge changes? Does it allow you to tag the repository in a certain state to make it easy to go back to it? Systems such as git, subversion, and even CVS allow you to do these things, and many "self-respecting nerds" have been using them for many times the lifetime of Dropbox. The systems I mentioned have been around for 5, 10, and 20 years, while Dropbox is barely 2 (according to their respective Wikipedia pages).

If I rely on these features for my work, and others such as cryptographically-strong assurance of my repository's integrity, then Dropbox is not going to meet my needs. Furthermore, if I don't trust my data to a company that may revoke my account without notice, then I am not even going to look for a service like this. If I am not looking for it, then why would I know what it is?

Are you confusing "self-respecting nerds" with "script kiddies"?

Re:And what does it do?

[revscat]

I've been here for a while. /. hasn't changed in a long, long time. Well... except the layout has gotten shittier over time, and the new Ajax comment submission stuff is slow as hell.

Re:And what does it do?

[RobbieCrash]

How would you know if it suited your needs without knowing what it is? That, was my point, not if it was the panacea for data storage.

I apologise for reading your post improperly, I see now you were just saying the file versioning isn't as robust as you'd like, not that it was non-existent.

Sorry, I missed the part where anyone classified Dropbox as a code versioning system. It's not meant as a code repository. The only thing close to code I keep in there are batch scripts that I like to run across systems.

It's a program that's designed to give you access to files across multiple computers, and for that it is flawless.

Of course git or CVS or subversion is going to be better at keeping track of code changes. The same way that email is better at sending messages to other people.

Of course you can do both with Dropbox, but it's hardly the ideal platform for it.

If the only thing you deem important enough to store on multiple PCs and to have access to wherever you need to go is source, then congrats, you lead a much more minimal life than I do, and I am honestly and truly jealous.

However, if like most nerds I know, you have multiple ways to get access to files you need from other places (SSH, FTP, SCP, emailing the files to yourself, whatever), why not simplify the process with Dropbox? It's the perfect solution to having a live backup of files that are mostly static, or working documents like school assignments, RFCs, statements of work, and the like. It's an infinitely more simple solution for me to save an RFC I'm working on at work in my Dropbox, and open the same file from home than it is for me to lug a laptop around, or copy it to a USB drive, or VPN in, or RDP in, or whatever other three letter acronym you want to use to get access to it at home.

If you want to use a hammer, use a hammer. But don't shit on a screwdriver for not being a hammer.

Re:And what does it do?

[Dabido]

Obviously you can use it to drop boxes on people you don't like! D'uh! :-)

Re:And what does it do?

[geminidomino]

No, if you didn't know what dropbox is, it essentially means you are moving on a slower plane of technological adoption.

Or you already implemented your own version that doesn't involve putting your crap into someone else's hands long before Dropbox became buzzword-compliant

Sorry, but dropbox is known through the valley and every other hot spot of tech startups.

Ok, I can't put my finger on it, but something in that sentence just set off my marketing-douche-alert...

Re:And what does it do?

[DrCode]

I also didn't have a clue what it was. But as soon as I saw that it had a Linux version, I was happy!

Re:And what does it do?

[gnapster]

How would you know if it suited your needs without knowing what it is? That, was my point, not if it was the panacea for data storage.

That is a fair point, but my point was this: If my needs (or paranoias) are beyond this service, then I gain nothing by knowing about it. Except maybe to advise others who might be looking for such a service.

Sorry if I was harsh. I was a bit tired at the time, and put off by your misapprehension of my writing. I can see that Dropbox has its place, and I will readily own that code-oriented version control does feel like overkill with static collections of files like photos. :c)

Hum. So now hopefully we're on the same page, and can have a more constructive conversation.

It is an interesting service. The fact that they don't provide more concise information about their service rubs me the wrong way, but by this point I do know what the service does (mostly from reading the thread here), and it would be a shame to write off a company for not meeting my expectations. My main reservation in using the service is, in fact, the business of plopping a slew of personal files on someone else's server, particularly one with a TOS that has clauses like Dropbox does. But using TrueCrypt ought to resolve most of that, so maybe when I have time to play with both of them, I will give it a go.

It's an infinitely more simple solution for me to save an RFC I'm working on at work in my Dropbox, and open the same file from home than it is for me to lug a laptop around, or copy it to a USB drive, or VPN in, or RDP in, or whatever other TLA you want to use to get access to it at home.

Fixed that for you. ;c)

If you want to use a hammer, use a hammer. But don't shit on a screwdriver for not being a hammer.

I was going to try to compose some witty play on, "When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail." But I think I have something more constructive. It's just a thought I had; I'm not trying to drive a point home any more, just developing ideas. Maybe you'll have an opinion on it?

I was reading "Beating the Averages" earlier today; it is an essay by Paul Graham, about his experience developing Viaweb. (Viaweb was his product as a first-mover in the online store genre of services. Viaweb was eventually purchased by Yahoo to become Yahoo Store.) He talks about what it means for one language to be more powerful than another.

He makes this interesting inductive argument about the relative power of programming languages. That is, there is an ordering '>' where for languages A and B, a person who is very familiar with both languages can say, 'B>A', meaning, "B is more powerful than A." The metric he seems to use is something like this: If a person uses B and knows the features of A, they might say, "How can you get anything done in A? It doesn't have feature x."

He claims that you should usually use the most powerful language for the job. The article is in the context of a dotcom startup, so he basically defines power as productivity in development (speed in adding features, that kind of thing). However, he acknowledges that for certain problems (simple throwaway programs, specialized number crunching, and other particular applications) a certain language may be more appropriate, even if it is less powerful by the normal metric. (For instance, FORTRAN might be better for number crunching than many languages that provide better tools for development.)

Crap. This is getting long. Where was I going with this? Oh, yeah. I view version control systems as more powerful than Dropbox. But many people don't need the advanced features of a system like git or subversion. Moreover, they are just likely to get in the way of someone who doesn't care. It is also nice in certain contexts

Re:And what does it do?

[MichaelKristopeit306]

you're an ignorant hypocrite. a sock puppet has no life... as NO individual account on this internet web site chat room message board holds life. i am a PERSON. i am a person named MICHAEL KRISTOPEIT.

you are exactly what you've claimed to be: NOTHING.

you cower only because you are unable to not cower.

you are COMPLETELY pathetic.

Re:And what does it do?

[aztracker1]

yeah, I meant "Windows, Mac and Linux" not "...PC" .. did mention Linux later.. but as you said. Someone's mention of rsync.net above is interesting too... may go that route if I need more than the 4gb I have now.

would be nice...

[gandhi_2]

...if you could run your own dropbox server instead of it all ending up on S3.

Or sub in an NFS, SAMBA, Windows file server, etc. for the backend.

To pass several gigs across the office, it's a massive waste to send it up to S3 and back down again.

Re:would be nice...

[Patik]

Under the General Preferences you can check "Enable LAN sync" which should be on by default. Yes, you're still sending it all to Amazon S3, but the files are also copied directly over the LAN to your other PCs rather than uploading to S3 and then downloading from S3.

Re:would be nice...

[Wingman 5]

Actually dropbox is smart enough that if two computers are visible to each other on a lan they will directly sync to each other instead of going out to dropbox's server.

Re:would be nice...

[Anonymous Coward]

They're called "traps" these days, faggot.

Re:would be nice...

[Anonymous Coward]

There is something like this being worked on now, called AeroFS. Look it up, maybe you can get in on the beta. Really promising stuff

Re:would be nice...

[HJED]

Thank you. I have been looking for something like that for ages! I hope it turns out to be what it claims to be. (invite only at the moment so can't try it)
For people who can't be bothered to google it, their site is here and their blog explains it pretty well: it is a p2p (although they offer cloud services as well. No pricing details for that though) file syncing tool with full 1024bit RSA encryption.

Re:would be nice...

[bpgslashdotaccount]

+1 to this. Maybe I'm a Luddite but I don't trust The Cloud. Let me run my own server. I don't need yet another company sifting through my personal data, and I don't need the **AA or a government shutting me down.

Re:would be nice...

[jroysdon]

Adjust your firewall to allow the traffic (you do firewall all your systems, right?):
# dropbox LAN sync
-A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m udp -p udp -s YOURLAN/LANMASK --dport 17500 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp -s YOURLAN/LANMASK --dport 17500 -j ACCEPT

I wouldn't advise allowing just all Dropbox traffic in, in case your system travels. Specifically your home LAN (-s YOURLAN/LANMASK).

Hardware category?

[Patik]

You're aware that Dropbox is not an actual box that you can put things in, right?

Re:Hardware category?

[ocdscouter]

You mean it's not a box connected to a series of tubes?

Re:Hardware category?

[fat_mike]

Of course not, its a magic pocket!

Didn't you watch the video?

Re:What I don't like about Dropbox...

[schnikies79]

Since it copies the files to all the devices you have dropbox on, if the account gets shut down, you still have the files on each device.

Publisher's Description

[PatPending]

Dropbox is the easiest way to store, sync and share your files online and between multiple computers.

Dropbox works just like any other folder on your computer, but with a few differences.

Here's how it works:

• Drag and drop to move files around, just like you normally would
• Any files or folders inside Dropbox will get synchronized to Dropbox's servers and any other computer linked to your account.
• Green checkmarks will appear on top of your files to let you know that they're synced and up to date.

Your files are always safe. All data is transferred over SSL and encrypted with AES-256 before storage.

Dropbox keeps track of every change made to any of its contents. Any changes are instantly and automatically sent to any other computer linked to your Dropbox. The Dropbox clients for Windows, Mac and Linux all play nice with one another too!

Re:Publisher's Description

[icebraining]

They have to be able to encrypt/decrypt on the server because they offer a web interface to download & upload files. Now, if the key is permanently stored or generated on-demand from the account's password, I don't know.

I just use encfs to encrypt some files before syncing them. Just use a subdirectory of the Dropbox directory as the encfs storage, and then any file copied to its mountpoint is automatically encrypted and synced.

Re:Publisher's Description

[CmdrChaos]

This is the first time I have heard of this. It sounds like a good alternative to face book. as anyone tried using it that way?

Where's the linux love?

[bobstreo]

I've been using dropbox for a while. Mostly linux and android phone. Some windows (work puter)

I went to check and the linux version seems to be lagging a bit, it's at .067 or something.

But seriously, a pretty useful application. Congrats on a 1.0

Re:Where's the linux love?

[anlag]

Noticing this as well. While the install page happily states "1.0.10 for Linux", clicking on to the actual files listing the downloads all seem to be version 0.6.7 - for Ubuntu and Fedora binaries as well as for the source package. Suppose it will come up soon enough, still, they could've finished uploading before they announced it too.

Re:Where's the linux love?

[NetCow]

The current Dropbox version for Linux is indeed 1.0.10. What you're downloading there is nautilus-dropbox, the Nautilus integration package. The actual Dropbox daemon is proprietary, it will be downloaded into ~/.dropbox-dist the first time you start it.

Re:Where's the linux love?

[thetoadwarrior]

Not sure what version mine is but it just asked me to update dropbox on my ubuntu machine the other day.

Re:Where's the linux love?

[NetCow]

The VERSION file in mine says 1.0.10. The About box in my client says 1.0.10. You might have stale files laying around - I recommend you close the Dropbox daemon, delete (or safer yet, rename) ~/.dropbox-dist, start the Dropbox daemon again and let it redownload.

Sounds great and all...

[Anonymous Coward]

...but I have my own Dropbox. It's called "My Briefcase", and it requires no Internet connection -- just plenty of floppy disks.

Re:Sounds great and all...

[maxwell demon]

...but I have my own Dropbox. It's called "My Briefcase", and it requires no Internet connection -- just plenty of floppy disks.

Floppy disks? I use punch cards for this. That way I don't have to fear my data to be deleted by a stray magnetic field.

Re:Sounds great and all...

[cvtan]

There's always the threat of a hanging chad to worry about with those punch cards

Use JungleDisk instead.

[johnwbyrd]

Older, stabler, supports all those platforms, and it's cheaper.

Basically, it presents an Amazon S3 bucket as a network drive on your local PC.

http://www.jungledisk.com/

Re:Use JungleDisk instead.

[Dan541]

JungleDisk is owned by Rackspace and it gives you the option of storing in RackspaceCloudfiles.

Plus client side encryption means you can store anything you want. JungleDisk don't know what you're using their service for because of the robust security.

Impenetrable

[Mysteray]

So I read this and think "Well its on Slashdot, this Dropbox thing must be really important". I wonder what it is?

I click on the link...

The new version comes with hundreds of bug fixes, including invalid file names on Windows, weird Unicode normalizations, Word and Excel file locking, abnormal symlinks hierarchies, and case sensitive file systems on Mac

Oh, so are invalid file names a bug or a feature? Why would I want to lock Word and Excel files? I know what they are but I don't use them. I don't use abnormal symlinks hierarchies or a Mac either.

So I click the first link 'Dropbox' which goes to (wait for it...) "The Dropbox blog"

Hey everyone! We’re super excited to announce the new hotness that we’ve been cooking up for the past few months: Dropbox 1.0! In addition to hundreds (yep, hundreds) of bug fixes, vastly reduced resource usage (think of it as the Prius model of Dropbox), Dropbox 1.0 (“Rainbow Shell”) also offers support for extended attributes, selective sync, and a shiny new installation wizard. Those are just the CliffsNotes though — here’s the true story behind Dropbox 1.0:

You get the idea. It goes on and on. How can these people talk so much and say so little?

The first link from this page: Dropbox Home. This looks promising, it goes to https://www.dropbox.com/

Here is the text of the page:

Suggestions, ideas, bug reports, and comments are always welcome. If you'd like to interact with other Dropbox users, check out our forums. Email Address (optional) There was a problem completing this request. Request completed successfully. Log in Email Password Remember me Create an account Dropbox - Secure backup, sync and sharing made easy. Watch a video about Dropbox. Watch a Video Sync your files online and across computers Download Dropbox Free for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Mobile Dropbox - Secure backup, sync and sharing made easy. Sync your files online and across computers Download Dropbox Free for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Mobile * Sync files of any size or type * Share large files and photos easily * Automatic online backup * Track and undo changes to files Take a tour of Dropbox © 2010 Dropbox * Dropbox * Home * Install * Mobile * Pricing * Features * Tour * Community * Referrals * Twitter * Facebook * Wiki * Developers * Partners * Support * Help Center * Forums * Votebox * Feedback * Contact Us * About Us * Dropbox Blog * Our Team * Press * Policies * Jobs

Oh, ok. So from this I gather that it's some sort of file sync application which needed a major rearchitecture before it could be released at version 1.0.

Almost all of the viewable area of the page is taken up by a giant video play button. Well, believe it or not I actually use my computer for computing and not as a television. I also like it to be halfway secure, so I don't have any Adobe products such as Flash installed. I do know how to read and it is several times faster. I'm not watching some video made by people who can't complete the sentence "Dropbox is ...".

I still don't get it, except that it syncs files and the people who made it should probably cut back on the Red Bull and talk to someone outside the office who hasn't been making and eating their own dog food for eighty hours a week for the last year.

Re:Impenetrable

[juuri]

As I said earlier in this thread... if you don't know what dropbox is, you are way behind the leading curve.

This can be good or bad depending on how you are ;).

Re:Impenetrable

[migla]

According to Wikipedia, "Dropbox is a Web-based file hosting service operated by Dropbox, Inc. which uses cloud computing to enable users to store and share files and folders with others across the Internet using file synchronization."

According to Wikipedia, "Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared servers provide resources, software, and data to computers and other devices on demand, as with the electricity grid. Cloud computing is a natural evolution of the widespread adoption of virtualization, Service-oriented architecture and utility computing. Details are abstracted from consumers, who no longer have need for expertise in, or control over, the technology infrastructure "in the cloud" that supports them."

Re:Impenetrable

[BlackFingolfin]

I also dislike the fact that they but a huge video on there. Instead of putting up bigger links to e.g. their guided tour https://www.dropbox.com/tour (which also contains a video, but one doesn't have to view it to follow the tour). Or the features page -- both links are the bottom.

So, while I agree that they should be a lot bigger and more prominent, I'd like to point out that these are not *that* hard to find ;)

Re:Impenetrable

[juuri]

If you would do a little research before opening your mouth, you would see what their value is.

HINT: Integration.

Re:Impenetrable

[Anonymous Coward]

Almost all of the viewable area of the page is taken up by a giant video play button. Well, believe it or not I actually use my computer for computing and not as a television. I also like it to be halfway secure, so I don't have any Adobe products such as Flash installed. I do know how to read and it is several times faster. I'm not watching some video made by people who can't complete the sentence "Dropbox is ...".

Then why are you having a bitchfit about not knowing what the product is? There's a giant play button and if you press it, it explains everything to you. It's like disabling text in your browser and whining because you can't read wikipedia, completely retarded.

Re:Impenetrable

[Anonymous Coward]

you're a retard.

Re:Impenetrable

[Mysteray]

Lol, choosing not to install a nonstandard closed source plugin to watch some marketing video isn't anything like disabling text on Wikipedia.

If you don't see the difference, you should probably stay away from text and go back to watching infomercials.

Autoupdate feature

[Amiralul]

An autoupdate feature would be nice. I had download the latest version, close my running Dropbox, wait a few seconds to close all its files and handles, then copy the newest version and overwrite the old one. All by myself! Then run it again. A little to much work for a Mac user, don't you think?

CrashPlan

[betso.net]

Why should a debug release make it to Slashdot? And then it's dropbox... something I waived as being quite overpriced long time ago. Their prices didn't change for quite a while. I found CrashPlan and did not even think about dropbox again until today when I was surprised to see this advertisement here. There are alternatives out there! Even though it is still tough for a Linux user.

XBMC Dharma 10.0 Also Released

[0100010001010011]

No clue why this was posted but not the announcement by XBMC. They finally released Dharma. Numerous improvements across the board compared to the last stable.

http://xbmc.org/theuni/2010/12/18/xbmc-10-0/

I submitted it this morning, but it was rejected.

Free, open alternatives?

[RichiH]

Basically, I am looking for something that will not only back up my photos (and track file renaming/moving), but also offers me the option to sync photos between PCs. Think my sister automagically sharing pictures of her children with my mom, etc. Finally, it should run on Linux and Windows and either be really easy to use or just work in the background.

Also, I want a pony.

I am constantly amazed that there isn't _something_ which offers this. After all, I can not be the only one with those problems, can I?

Re:Free, open alternatives?

[k8to]

unison is a reasonable file synchronizer. It isn't nearly as easy to use.

Re:Free, open alternatives?

[EpsCylonB]

rsync (plus a git repo) can give you the basic features of Dropbox

Open source software is not know for good user friendly UI's though (there are exceptions) which is why Dropbox is so popular

Re:Free, open alternatives?

[tftp]

I am constantly amazed that there isn't _something_ which offers this.

Google photos + Picasa do that, for years now.

Re:Free, open alternatives?

[Haedrian]

Ubuntu One? There's a beta client for windows. Not sure whether it allows 'partial' synching.

What's wrong with dropbox? It does all that. You can share files with other people as well. I used it quite heavily to have something common between my partitions and my computer.

The pony will be a bit harder...

Re:Free, open alternatives?

[RichiH]

I'll have a look, thanks :)

Re:Free, open alternatives?

[RichiH]

Yes, and I am using that. Yet, it's not for my mom. Joey Hess built a file tracker on top of git. I will need to look at that again, as well.

Re:Free, open alternatives?

[RichiH]

You are still giving away your photos to a third party. Plus, you are limited to 1 GB of space or you need to buy extra. I would rather invest that money into my own gear than hand it over to someone else. Especially since half a dozen people would need accounts, which adds up quickly.

Re:Free, open alternatives?

[RichiH]

Neither U1 nor Dropbox are FLOSS. You can host neither yourself. I don't want pictures of my family floating around third party sites. And I don't want to pay anyone else for what is basically a backed-up hard drive. I can do that myself. I just need something my mom can use, too.

Re:Free, open alternatives?

[WhiteSpade]

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

Re:Free, open alternatives?

[Sepodati]

"Dropbox lets you share your folders with others by creating a new shared folder or sharing an existing one. Once you add other members to the folder, it will appear in your friends or colleagues own Dropbox just as it does in yours. Any changes made to the shared folder's contents will appear instantaneously to everyone who is a member of the folder."

So you, your mom and sister all install drop box and have a shared folder. Whatever your sister saves into that folder is visible to you and your mom. Only caveat is I think the shared folder counts towards everyones quota. So you might want upgraded accounts if you're going to save a lot of pictures.

Someone else also mentioned CrashPlan, the free version of which appears to sync files between multiple computers (instead of a server-based storage system).

Re:Free, open alternatives?

[Rich0]

Ditto - I'd like an application that makes it easy for me to access my files from the web. I'm happy to provide the LAMP/etc, but I don't want my files to just be floating out there for random company to access.

Re:Free, open alternatives?

[ColdWetDog]

You do realize you can pay for more on Dropbox? Not exactly cheap, but it's is an option.

Re:Free, open alternatives?

[RichiH]

Yes. How does that make it a FLOSS solution, though?

Re:Free, open alternatives?

[RichiH]

Shady accounting to force you to upgrade does not make Dropbox any more interesting, imo.

I will check out CrashPlan, though. Thanks :)

Re:What I don't like about Dropbox...

[interkin3tic]

So, you can use the free version, but if you do, make sure you don't store anything of value because it might go "poof" without notice.

I too read the fine print in TOS, which is why I don't use itunes. If I want to build nuclear weapons using my mp3 library, who is apple to tell me I can't do that?

Re:I see your clue and raise you one

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll just pull out my Brutally Honest Dictionary, 2nd Edition here...

I'll do the same.

The OP never asked what dropbox is.

The summary sucks. Yes, it sucks. And so does the article. You know why they didn't say what it does? Because they are lazy. The entire "article" is just a reprint of the information from the dropbox site, but at least the original article links to dropbox, as opposed to the summary which links to the Techpub article. So it appears the intents of the submitter is not to give us any kind of information, but to generate page hits on Techpub.

I come to slashdot because it's a news aggregate site, and I don't feel like doing the looking and researching myself. If I end up having to do all the research myself, what's the point of coming here in the first place, other than to Troll the discussion... (I think I just answered my own question, especially looking at the tone of your posts).

Just for the record, I'm not the same AC commenting earlier.

Re:I see your clue and raise you one

[Anonymous Coward]

If you want someone to Google it for you, read the results, relay the results to you, then have you read the results ... well guess what? That process can be streamlined.

You're damn right it can.

Someone should start a web site, where people can submit news articles, do this basic legwork, and post that information in a brief summary.

We could even make the name of the site something clever, like spelling out the words for the symbols / and .
But on second thought I'm sure it's already been done. I might have to look around and see if I can find such a place...

Re:What I don't like about Dropbox...

[Knuckles]

I don't know know, but "Dropbox may delete any or all of Your Files " does sound to me as if the could also delete the local copies.

What is "TrueCrypt Support"?

[Danathar]

Exactly what does truecrypt support mean?

Re:What is "TrueCrypt Support"?

[Tumbleweed]

Exactly what does truecrypt support mean?

It's encrypted. Truly.

Re:What is "TrueCrypt Support"?

[spandex_panda]

I think that they have ensured that only the diff of a truecrypt volume gets uploaded after you change a volume.

I have been thinking about sticking all my photos in Dropbox, but if I do, it will be inside a large trucrypt volume, so that only I can view them. This will be a very large initial upload, but then as I add more photos to the volume, only the new photos will be uploaded (as a few hundred meg difference in the TC volume).

Crappy Dropbox info is here: https://www.dropbox.com/help/28

Re:What is "TrueCrypt Support"?

[SharpFang]

Hopefuly, that if you put a 50GB Truecrypt file-partition in your dropbox, it doesn't send all 50GB to the server if you changed one file in your truecrypt virtual drive.

Re:What is "TrueCrypt Support"?

[Danathar]

I hope that is the case. Other cloud based services are file based and have the problem you were talking about. Having just the diff on a big encrypted store would be REALLY nice.

I understand they SAY they encrypt everything, but what good is that? I'm not there to confirm it.

Re:What is "TrueCrypt Support"?

[Danathar]

I did a quick test with the new version. I created a 5GB truecrypt volume and uploaded it. Then mounted it stuffed a 100MB file in it.

Only 100MB was uploaded as a diff.

awesome

Re:What I don't like about Dropbox...

[rastilin]

Yeah, I thought the same thing when I read that. It helps to back up the dropbox folder into another one regularly.

What DropBox does

[bradley13]

I hate sites that make you watch a video, instead of just telling your what they do. However, DropBox really is a very nice service, so here is what they should have said, in place of the video:

DropBox is a file synchronization service. Install it on multiple computers, and synchronize your files automatically. The files are also accessible directly from the DropBox website, in case you need access from third-party computer.

Here is what it does: You select a folder on your computer that should be automatically synchronized online. Any changes made to files in this folder are - at the next opportunity - sent to your DropBox account. If you use multiple computers, put the DropBox service on all of them, and they are kept in sync. with each other. The Linux support is excellent, you can sync cross-platform (Linux/Windows), your files are encrypted, DropBox maintains previous versions for 30 days (with a paid account, previous versions are maintained forever). Most importantly, it "just works".

I tried a lot of different synchronization tools and services (Unison, JungleDisk, etc.). This is by far the best. Note: I have no connection with them - I am just a very happy customer.

Re:What DropBox does

[BlackFingolfin]

Or, you could just take the guided tour https://www.dropbox.com/tour the DropBox site offers (which also contains a video, but one doesn't have to view it to follow the tour).

Re:What DropBox does

[Attila Dimedici]

They should have the "What is Dropbox?" paragraph on the home page (it is a very good summary of what Dropbox is/does). When I go to a product's home page, I don't want a tour of the product. I want to know what the product is. So, I'm not going to follow a link for a tour until I know if it is something I'm interested in.

Re:What DropBox does

[selven]

If you go to the "tour" section of the website (really smal link at the bottom of the main page) or the "features" section, right at the top you get the text "Dropbox is software that syncs your files online and across your computers".

I've noticed on practically all websites these days the front page is mostly useless and you need to look for a link labeled with some synonym of "about" or "FAQ" to figure out what exactly the program is.

Re:What DropBox does

[xtracto]

Yeah, dropbox is an excellent service, however I don't like that they only give 2GB in the free service.

Sheesh, for my web-email box I have more than 7GB (Gmail) for free.

Re:What DropBox does

[ysth]

The summary here should also have had a sentence saying wtf dropbox is.

Re:What DropBox does

[LordVader717]

The economics for gmail work very differently. Whilst it's true that they promise 7 GB, most customers use vastly less than that.
Also, dropbox will create higher traffic and use more resources than emails, which usually just sit there while a handful might be pulled at any one time.
In contrast dropbox makes moving large files such as video or music very easy.

I'm actually surprised they give away 2GB. Whilst it's not useful as permanent backup for video and music, it certainly makes life so much easier that it's hardly worth paying money for a few GB more.

Re:What DropBox does

[prikkebeen]

Did you (all) mis the features link on their website? Here's a link: https://www.dropbox.com/features/ It shows exactly what Dropbox has to offer.

Re:What DropBox does

[bill_mcgonigle]

The Linux support is excellent

Unix attributes and all? Is is smart about syncing deleted and changed files? Excludes (~/.ssh, etc.) are easy?

And how much costee?

[qwerty8ytrewq]

Can anyone explain how much it costs when you go past 2GB? after a good 5 min on their site, I couldn't figure it out...

Re:And how much costee?

[Haedrian]

https://www.dropbox.com/plans

You need to be logged in to see it. *sigh*

You can do lots of things to get more than 2 GB for free. Like telling friends.

Re:And how much costee?

[dronkert]

50 GB for $9.99/month or $99.00/year, 100 GB for $19.99/month or $199.00/year. Get an extra 250 MB for every friend referral (also on free accounts and friend gets it, too).

Re:And how much costee?

[adolf]

Getting an extra 250MB on Dropbox is easy. Just use the link in my sig to sign up, and you'll have a 250MB more than a normal free account.

AFAIK, all of their referral links work the same way. Feel free to Google yourself a different one.

(Yes, it's a dirty referral link. Yes, I get an extra 250MB as well. Is it spam or is it useful? *shrug*)

Re:And how much costee?

[adolf]

Impressive moderation: Underrated, Funny, and Overrated*2, with the comment finally landing back at the default score of 2 (plus Funny).

So which is it, mods? I've had karma to burn since ya'll were shooting Cheerios in the toilet, and could care less...

But so far, exactly one person (in the month or two I've been using this sig) has signed up, and we both got 250MB of storage in the S3 cloud for it, for free.

Fun stuff. Keep modding, mods, as you decide whether my late comment to a discussion is spammy or not. It's fun to watch.

Re:Obligatory anti-slashvertisement

[thetoadwarrior]

My experience says that's not true. So where's your proof to any of that or are you just talking shit?

Re:Syncing home network

[93 Escort Wagon]

Windows Live Mesh has all of DropBox' functinality, with more free online storage, except those two as far as I can see. It even works with OS X.

What about an iPad/iPhone client? No? Okay, Android - what, no again? Okay... well does it at least support Linux? No? How about OS X files that include resource forks - that's also a no?

I guess your definition of the word "all" is somewhat different than mine.

MS Synctoy clone

[flyingfsck]

OK, so Dropbox is a web enabled clone of the free MS Synctoy...

Files are dead.

[MonoSynth]

This tool only seems to work with files. If I examine my own computer use, I see that I don't use files directly anymore. I edit/manage my photos with Aperture, it doesn't matter to me where they are on my hard drive. I manage and play music in iTunes. I'm happy to let it manage the files, because it's a pita to manage a huge music collection by hand. At work I work with Visual Studio and TFS. Yes, I know what my local working folder is, but I don't have to. Whenever I need to edit a document, the fastest way is to open the word processor and open the file via 'Recent Files'. I rarely need to access the files directly or know where they are.

Besides, I don't want the same format on every device. I don't want a 16MB RAW file on my phone, just because I used the same file in Aperture.
Just because I made a document in Word, doesn't mean I want to have the word document on-the-go, when I just have it there for review and an e-reader optimized version is a lot easier.
I rip my cd's in Apple Lossless or iTunes Plus, because that's how it works and I have lots of hdd space. On my netbook, those files are way too big and everybody knows how much of a pita iTunes on a slow Windows box is. At the moment, I have to manually manage a shadow library with 160 kbit mp3's.
And what about contacts? Bookmarks? I don't want those things as files in a certain format, I want to use the appropriate program to access that information.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a library with source files on DropBox Online and a set of filters to generate the right libraries, protocols and formats for use on your devices?

Re:Files are dead.

[icebraining]

Integration of all those apps with semantic desktop technologies would solve all those problems and more ;)

Re:Files are dead.

[LordVader717]

Selective sync will solve the issue with large files.

Other than that you are relying on databases and config files generated by Apple's software. As long as you're sure to sync the database files as well you should be alright.
Obviously this requires more manual configuration and the more you rely on these kind of systems the less portable your files become.

Hardware?

[fph il quozientatore]

Why is this filed under "hardware"? Is there a real blue wooden box in a datacenter to which my files are sent?

How does Dropbox hanle conflicts?

[freedumb2000]

I have looked at their site, but could not find an answer to this question: how does Dropbox handle file conflicts? I.e. two remote users change a file at the same time. Do files get locked? Does the owner of the share get to decide manually which file to keep?

Re:How does Dropbox hanle conflicts?

[egranlund]

In my experience it saves one of the files, and then saves the conflict in a new file.
There have been a couple of times where I see "Hello World.doc" and "Hello World Conflicted Copy blabla.doc" in my dropbox folder.

Re:Syncing home network

[freedumb2000]

Have you looked at unison? It has a couple of quirks (the way it sometimes does dot fail properly on aborted ssh connections for example), but works reliably overall. http://www.unison.org.uk/

Re:Syncing home network

[freedumb2000]

Oh no, that was obviously the wrong link I just posted. Here is the correct one: http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/

Re:Obligatory anti-slashvertisement

[maxwell demon]

See? It not only deleted your files from your computer, it also deleted them from your memory. That's why you can't remember any lost files. :-)

This many people on Slashdot...

[LoudNoiseElitist]

...haven't used Dropbox? Seriously? It's awesome.

Re:This many people on Slashdot...

[betso.net]

That's a sign for dropbox. Not for the people on Slashdot. :)

Re:What I don't like about Dropbox...

[DarkOx]

I am always amazed by how often nuclear arms turn up in day to day contracts. Both my home and auto policies have sections limiting the insurer in the even of nuclear attack. Somehow I feel if my home or car has been damaged in such an event filing an insurance claim, won't be high on my list of things to do, that is if I, my insurer, and the rule of law even exist after such an event.

And mobile devices...

[itsdapead]

THe real winner for me is that it's also a tool that you install on your PC or Mac or Linux machine.

Plus, clients for iPad/iPod, Android and Blackberry (along with basic access from anything that can download from the web).

Its about the easiest way to get files on and off an iPad - its a crying shame that Apple don't add "export to DropBox" to the mobile iWork Apps. Its very easy to use by (e.g.) people who would run a mile from rsync.

I've hit a few headaches when trying to use it for collaborative work - some may be addressed by the new file locking fixes, others have really been PEBKAC which can't really be blamed on the software - e.g. person puts latest file in dropbox folder, emails everybody to say latest file is in dropbox, doesn't check that dropbox is actually connected and syncing...

There's a related issue for Macs in that, as far the Mac is concerned, the dropbox is a folder on your hard drive, so when you drag files in and out of there the default is to move, not copy - which is not usually what you want (especially when dragging files out).

An option to share "read only" would be nice...

Re:And mobile devices...

[b100dian]

clients for iPad/iPod, Android and Blackberry

You mean they don't support WebDav natively, but need an application?

Re:And mobile devices...

[itsdapead]

clients for iPad/iPod, Android and Blackberry You mean they don't support WebDav natively, but need an application?

DropBox does more than you would get with native webDav. You can upload/download your files with a standard web browser. What you get with the App is automatic syncing across all your devices. On the mobile versons you get to select which files you want cached locally.

Plus, I've found that lusers who can't cope with connecting to file servers are able to set up and use DropBox.

DropBox alternative: SpiderOak

[mystuff]

SpiderOak is also a cross platform synchronization and share tool and does everything DropBox does (only a bit better) except that it allows you to sync as many folders on as many computers as you like. And for 100 dollar a year (50 if you're a student) you can get 100GB extra (up to 5 TB).

I am in no way affiliated with SiperOak, just a satisfied user. The only thing I worry about with SpiderOak and Dropbox is what kind of lifespan they have. Will they still be around in 5 - 10 years?

Re:DropBox alternative: SpiderOak

[ColdWetDog]

The only thing I worry about with SpiderOak and Dropbox is what kind of lifespan they have. Will they still be around in 5 - 10 years?

Doesn't really matter. The files are on your own drive(s). If they go titsup, you just have to find it's replacement or just read the man page for rsync.

Re:DropBox alternative: SpiderOak

[xworld21]

IMHO, the most important feature of SpiderOak is zero-knowledge. No kind of information can be recovered without knowing your password (at least theoretically). DropBox promises AES encryption, but the keys are actually on the server, and you can notice that by uploading a big file which is already on the server, but on someone else's account (e.g. an Ubuntu ISO): the upload will be almost instantaneous. With SpiderOak this doesn't happen, since your files are encrypted before the upload with your master key (which is itself encrypted with your password).

Re:Well this is embarassing. *clicks Anon*

[Attila Dimedici]

Personally, I have the opposite thought. I hope somebody from Dropbox does come one and read this. Maybe they will improve the way they talk about their product so that people will know what they are. The only reason I know what Dropbox is is because a friend of mine who has to have the latest and greatest, cool, new thing asked me to sign up for it so that he could get the extra space you get for getting a new member. I haven't used yet, but I have a project I'm going to start one of these days that it will simplify.

Re:What I don't like about Dropbox...

[volsung]

If you aren't backing up your data to removable storage, then it is not valuable to you.

dropbox is still lacking some very basic features

[roubles]

1) Every piece of data you sync has to _also_ be synced online. So, then you're restricted to the amount of online storage you pay for.
What if you want to sync tonnes of storage between computer(s), and only sync a small amount of stuff online. This is not supported in dropbox, and I don't think ever will be because marketing won't want it to change. Today I use Windows live sync (or live mesh) for this purpose and it works.

2) The last time I checked, you could only sync one folder. The drop box folder. They cannot sync multiple folders: http://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=5088
This is just lame. I don't think people would like to change their backup directory structure to comply with dropbox's basic/naive/bad design decisions.

Upgrade for Linux users

[DuctTape]

Not horribly obvious is how to update for Linux users. You have to go to the blog to see that instead of downloading the .dropbox-dist update, you just need to:

1. Open a terminal.
2. $ dropbox stop
3. $ dropbox status # Should report "not running"
4. $ rm -r ~/.dropbox-dist/
5. $ dropbox start -i

Easy as pie. Don't have to be root either. Assumes you've already installed a previous version (with nautilus integration for Gnome, etc., etc.).

DT

Re:What I don't like about Dropbox...

[Frosty Piss]

If you aren't backing up your data to removable storage, then it is not valuable to you.

Indeed. The whole concept behind this type of thing and these "cloud" back-up schemes is flawed.

Re:Syncing home network

[freedumb2000]

Yea, they say it's not under active development, but the changelogs tell a different story. I think they just mean to say it is not a top priority for them.

Dropbox is brilliant & essential for iOS users

[QuatermassX]

I've used iTool/.Mac/MobileMe since its inception and used a password-protected public folder for work over the past couple of years. Although I found it extremely useful to have all my business documents in the Apple cloud, the WebDAV performance was/is rather poor. I could mount the share, but actually opening the files from the share was a glacial process.

Despite the upgrades over the years, the cloud storage of MobileMe remains sluggish to access from anything but the fastest of connections (though the iOS app is rather nice).

But what I haven't seen so far in this Slashdot article is a discussion of how well Dropbox integrates into iOS. There are quite a number of interesting Dropbox integrations with more on the way.

I've been using Dropbox for the past four months on a variety of collaborative projects and I'm finding the biggest challenge is to correctly parcel out permissions so that users are appropriately sandboxed in their respective areas of competence. It's also heaven to be able to work using the Finder on my Mac, the work MacBook and the occasional Windows XP box when I must.

Re:dropbox is still lacking some very basic featur

[0100010001010011]

2) The last time I checked, you could only sync one folder. The drop box folder. They cannot sync multiple folders:
http://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=5088

Check again. I can do "selective sync", at least with OS X, and check the folders I want to sync online. That's actually one of the new features.
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/12/17/dropbox-1-0-available-with-performance-enhancements-selective-s/

DropBox is evil

[dbc]

at least on a Mac. It installs stuff that is hard to get rid of and consumes too much CPU. I installed to at the request of someone I was working with... I used it for 10 minutes and decided it was outrageously evil and bad software that I wanted off my machine, and then spent the next hour trying to get right of the slosh. I also reduced my trust for that co-worker about 3 notches. Beware before trying DropBox.

Re:DropBox is evil

[ColdWetDog]

The only time I've seen Dropbox chew up CPU on OS X is when Spotlight has to deal with a bunch of new files. Then it whines and complains.

Older iterations however would hit the CPU rather had for a while. This has gone away in the last number of builds.

Re:DropBox is evil

[Doctor_Jest]

I never noticed, but I've only been using Dropbox for the last 6 months or so... it's been very stable. I'm impressed with its ability to "stay out of the way..." And it is handy when I use my netbook... I can just get to my private folder and open my password list (1Password). :)

Re:It's cloud marketing bullshit

[Angostura]

I love these reductionist posts where people show that new system X is just the same as old system Y.

Yes. You can use FTP to share files, yes you can use CVS to track versions. No using Dropbox is like neither of these, in terms of user experience. I have a folder on my machine called DropBox, any folder/file I pop in there is automatically uploaded to the remote storage with no more intervention. If I 'share' that folder with another Dropbox user, it automatically appears in their Dropbox folder. If either of us make changes, they are automatically synced to the other user.

If I right click on a file in Dropbox/Public it will offer me a public link to the file I can send to anyone. If I dump a folder of files into Dropbox/Pictures I will be able to get a public link to that folder which automatically displays said files as a gallery.

It's without doubt the simplest way to share a repository of common files between a group of non-tech people and let any of them update.

Re:It's cloud marketing bullshit

[St.Creed]

While I'm just as allergic to using the term "Cloud" for everything as most IT-professionals, in this case it's running on Amazon's S3 service. That qualifies as "cloudbased" to me.

As for the FTP, CVS etc.: you're right ofcourse, it all exists in one form or another. However, it's the same in the same sense as the Apple iPhone 4 being just a processor, some RAM, and a miniature radio. Cobbled together, ofcourse.

The point is: the sum of the parts is very much better than all of the parts taken separately. I was reluctant to install yet ANOTHER app but after installing this one I was pretty much hooked on it. It fullfills a pretty specific purpose and does that quite well.

Re:I see your clue and raise you one

[gnapster]

I think I saw one or two sites like that listed on this site, but there were no links, so I wasn't able to find out more.

Re:Dropbox is brilliant & essential for iOS us

[ColdWetDog]

Agreed. Dropbox is what iDisk should have been. If only Dropbox could sync contacts and email without going through Google it would be perfect.

Drop Box Gets all the Nerd-Cred

[speedplane]

I'm not exactly sure why Drop-Box gets so much nerd-cred. It's a cool product, but there are way cooler ones out there. Check out SugarSync. They've got all the same features and a programmer's API so you can build your own stuff. They also have mobile integration for Andoid, iPhone, blackberry and non-smartphones. No I don't work for Sugarsync, but I am a happy customer.

Re:Any open soure software that does the same?

[Ash-Fox]

Sorry, the only software I know of that does that with S3 is dropbox itself (yes, it uses Amazon S3)

Re:It's cloud marketing bullshit

[syousef]

Ever heard of Windows Explorer FTP shortcuts? Or TortoiseCVS or TortoiseSVN?

Their service may be slightly more user friendly, and might be replicated (but then FTP has mirrors).

It's nothing new. It's just "Cloud" marketing. I don't care if people don't want to hear it because it's the current fad, but it's the truth no matter how many buzzwords you use.

Re:Syncing home network

[Fencepost]

Wow, Unison added Android support?

Personally, I've found Dropbox to be a very convenient way to get things onto my phone, particularly ebooks. Dump them from Calibre into a Books directory in Dropbox, then go to the phone and just open the file.

I'd consider doing the same with SugarSync, but there's no official Linux client yet, and doesn't look to be one for quite some time if ever (though there's an independent working on one using their published API). One big difference: SugarSync lets you specify the directories to sync.

Re:I see your clue and raise you one

[Xamataca]

Just for the record, I'm not the same AC commenting earlier.

How is it possible?!!! you got the same god-fucking nick, liar!!!

Re:It's cloud marketing bullshit

[MBGMorden]

You do realize that 99% of making good software is in the UI right? Just about any useful program does all the things a person needs it to. The trick is in presenting those functions in a streamlines manner.

Stating that you can replicate the functionality of the app to some degree by stringing together a half-dozen legacy apps doesn't negate it's usefulness. Dropbox, Ubuntu One, and similar system are useful, and serve a good purpose. Whether or not you want to use "cloud" or anything else to describe them, they're a lot better than the jury-rigged makeshift solutions from the days of old.

Re:It's cloud marketing bullshit

[Angostura]

I detest cloud marketing. I never use the word cloud, other than to mock it.

That doesn't change the fact that Dropbox is supremely user friendly and flexible. And as far as I know, they don't use the word cloud either on their site.