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Open Source Alternative To Dropbox?
garry_g writes "While 'the cloud' may be one of the major buzzwords of the Internet industry, anybody concerned with security and privacy will most likely not touch it with a 10-foot pole. While I am guilty of using Dropbox for occasional data storage or quick picture snaps with my Android phone, I do watch out not to store anything important on there (or incriminating), no matter what the "privacy policy" may be. I was wondering: what useful alternative is there to Dropbox on the FOSS market, which will allow access by both windows/linux boxes, but also mobile devices (specifically Android). I know there are front-end add ons for Windows (and Linux tools of course) e.g. for SVN, but most likely no implementations for mobile use as far as I can tell... And, of course, the backend should run on a Linux box ;)"
Dropbox is secure - just use PGP to encrypt everything you put up there, and decrypt it upon arrival at your host machine. I suppose that would require a jail-broken Android, but that's not all bad... I don't generally accept arguments that the cloud isn't secure. It is, if used correctly (see above). The cloud is like a public restroom - you treat it differently than the one in your house by being much more conscious about cleanliness and such (in the cloud, more conscious about security), but it's perfectly acceptable to use both.
Deja Moo: The distinct feeling that you've heard this bull before.
Why would he need dropbox for pictures snapped from his android phone?
If he has Android, he has google.
If he has google he has Picasa.
If he has picasa his android will sync with it at will.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
"... all that's left is to update your server periodically..."
Look, you can't have your cake and eat it too. Either someone else hosts the service, does the maintenance, and as such has physical access, or you use your own server, in which you have to do maintenance.
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
Ubuntu One, but the server-side is proprietary. And it is rather buggy on other platforms.
So, like a lot of open source software, it's a solution...but not really.
Like a lot of open source software, it's like a lot of other open source software that attempts to do pretty much the same thing, but in a different way and with different bugs and missing features. The solution, of course, to this mess of half-finished, buggy, and abandoned OSS with horrid UIs is easy. Start another project to do the same thing, only this time, we'll do it right. It'll be feature-complete quickly and free of serious bugs because all those other developers working on similar software will immediately see how superior we are and join us.