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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."
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!
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.
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.
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.
You're aware that Dropbox is not an actual box that you can put things in, right?
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.
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:
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!
What one fool can do, another can. (Ancient Simian Proverb)
I click on the link...
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"
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:
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.
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.
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.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
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.
R.Mo
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.
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
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...
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
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?
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.
Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)