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Canonical Shutting Down Ubuntu One File Services
jones_supa (887896) writes "Wanting to focus their efforts on their most important strategic initiatives and ensuring that the company is not spread too thin, Canonical is shutting down Ubuntu One file services. With other services now regularly offering from 25 GB to 50 GB of free storage, the personal cloud storage space wasn't a sustainable place for Canonical. As of today, it will no longer be possible to purchase storage or music from the Ubuntu One store. The Ubuntu One software will not be included in the upcoming Ubuntu 14.04 LTS release, and the Ubuntu One apps in older versions of Ubuntu and in the Ubuntu, Google, and Apple stores will be updated appropriately.
The current services will be unavailable from 1 June 2014; user content will remain available for download until 31 July, at which time it will be deleted. For a spark of solace, the company promises to open source the backend code."
The current services will be unavailable from 1 June 2014; user content will remain available for download until 31 July, at which time it will be deleted. For a spark of solace, the company promises to open source the backend code."
I for one used this service to share files between my Ubuntu desktops, it worked seamlessly. It is especially useful for development files (programs and scripts) that I share between my different workplaces.
If anyone has a replacement suggestion that integrates well with the Ubuntu desktop, I would be glad to hear from it.
The non-permanence of cloud services like storage and sharing is going to be hard to solve. Sure some will last. But some will not. How do you choose the ones the will?
How will the industry handle the increasing number of people that have suffered "cloud failure". These people are going to be reluctant to use future services.
A common problem with companies that has a strong FOSS leaning, is that they come up with a lot of good ideas that will often not take off too well. And often will be discontinued shortly.
Now I applaud them for trying, however it creates a catch 22 problem.
If people do not feel comfortable that your service will last, they will not use it, your next idea will not be utilized because you have created a history of dropping products.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
they start so many project , and neither of them actually works great
This would be my last complaint about Canonical. In any industry, 90+% of ideas are going to turn out to be unworkable. It's admirable that Canonical puts resources into trying so many in the first place. Perhaps they need to learn when to cut losses sooner, but trying is the mature approach.
Now then, back to complaining about Canonical: they're releasing the code for the backend? Somebody tell me that the front end was just a webdav client and that the backend handled all the locking and synchronization parts so that this isn't a meaningless gesture for customers who are getting cut off with a whole two months' notice to re-design their workflows.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
It's not much different from Google. Google has long had a "throw shit at a wall and see what sticks" approach to business. But unlike Canonical, Google already had a cash cow in the form of its search service and the attached advertising services, and then later its Gmail service, so it could afford this kind of approach.
Pardon this post as it is heavy on opinion. If you think it's so far off the mark you want to mod me down, it would be far more productive to reply.
Ubuntu One was a pretty big deal and one of the last good things attached to Canonical Ubuntu's name (IMHO). Hard times at Canonical perhaps? Canonical has always struck me as a company that won't be around forever, if even a few scant more years. They are always either too busy chasing unrealistic goals in the hopes of being elevated to the levels of the real major players in tech, or are busy fighting against popular trends and pushing back against the overall direction of Linux and Open Source.
The death of Canonical is a shake up the Linux development community needs for both perspective and spurring continued innovation in Linux and Linux distributions.
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
If you mean software or web pages you're developing, svn or other source control really is worth the 20 minutes or so it takes to set up the first time. Even if you're the only developer on the project. Github makes it easy to access your git repositories from anywhere if you don't have a server or dyndns.
I didn't use source control for fifteen years because it seemed like it would be a hassle. When an employee set it up, I learned it reduces hassles.
Seriously , why do so many people thinking transfering files is some new problem still looking for a solution? I can understand it for Windows users but Linux users really should know better.
Because FTP only supplies the transport layer - it's not going to automatically sync the 1000 files you dropped in the FTP directory and won't do the many-to-many replication that people use to share files among multiple desktops. Even rsync gets a little cumbersome for that without a central server that they all have access to, and if you're going to set up a server, you may as well set up something like OwnCloud.
Now then, back to complaining about Canonical: they're releasing the code for the backend? Somebody tell me that the front end was just a webdav client and that the backend handled all the locking and synchronization parts so that this isn't a meaningless gesture for customers who are getting cut off with a whole two months' notice to re-design their workflows.
The client is not a simple webdav client, it's a pretty complex piece of code that has been open source since day one: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~u...
The server is a complex beast. It's the other side of the syncing protocol, it has a series of workers that do all sorts of tasks on uploaded files to present them back in a scalable, usable way, it handles music purchasing and delivering, performance metrics on the system, sharing between users, and a long etc :)
I don't think users will care about open sourcing any of it, but others might be able to pick up where we left off.
I am always on the lookout for cloud storage my current list from best to worst with their respective pros and cons are (*Based on what I have seen & most of my computers run linux so its a major part of my list)
1. Copy.com - Most free storage 15 gb, works with every environment, Integrates acceptably with linux, Most generous with new free space for referrals (+5 gb for both parties). I have not yet witnessed how it handles conflicting copies of a file. On that note If anyone wants a copy account we both get an extra 5 gigs if you follow my referral link https://copy.com?r=9frCDJ
2. Dropbox - Great handling of conflicting copies, works with every environment, great linux integration, lowest storage space and lowest storage space per referral. Great handling of conflicted copies.
3. Spideroak - Great linux integration, great encryption, No online viewing of files (due to the encryption) great linux integration 4. Box - great free space, none existent linux integration, no conflict checking/ history for free version. It ate many of my important school files because of this. 5. There are also Google drive and microsoft Onedrive but I have no experience with them.
To sum up, right now My favorite is copy.com due to copious amounts for free space and Linux intigration. Hope that helps
I like FTP as much as the next Slashdotter, but it's not a perfect overlap to the same problem that Dropbox/Gdrive/UbuntuOne solves.
FTP doesn't do delta syncs. While this is okay for a 50KB text file or even a 2MB spreadsheet, transferring a 1GB file in its entirety is undesirable.
FTP requires an "intentional transfer". You save locally, then you upload remotely. U1 et al does this as a single step.
FTP requires an open port on the receiving end, which is not always possible (e.g., public/corporate Wi-Fi). These services handle NAT traversal seamlessly.
FTP is sometimes blocked on residential internet connections. U1 is not.
FTP can only share files with another user if its structure is designed to accommodate it. Dropbox can share files using a simple "share" command (I don't know if U1 supports this).
FTP on mobile devices is a nightmare, either because iOS gets weird with its attempts to hide the "complexity" of a file system, or because Android doesn't. Again, Dropbox makes this seamless, but I don't know if U1 does this any better.
Like I said, I really like FTP, because it's very quick, no storage limits, and is a very minimalist protocol that has withstood the test of time. There are, however, very valid reasons for the success of services like Ubuntu One and Dropbox.
Why do so many people suggest newfangled technologies like FTP? I can understand it for Windows users, but Linux users should be able to just use netcat.
Karma: Terrifying (mostly affected by atrocities you've committed)
I don't know about "Great linux integration" for dropbox, At work we have the business version working on our ubuntu fileserver and we are trying to sync 300k files. (eventually we want to replace this with a VPN but can't at the moment). Linux version crashes at least once a week, we even tried it on another ubuntu box and same issue. We reinstalled our fileserver with windows 7 and it has now been working solid for over a month with no crashes.
Canonical is genius on wasting money , they start so many project , and neither of them actually works great . just look at unity , mir and so many other.
e.g unity first written in (i think) gtk , then Canonical created nux (c++ framework), then ported to nux , and unity 2 to qml , and now they port whole unity to Qt again.
something same will happen for mir . then no serious company never will look at mir seriously (like nvidia ATI )
Go found a company in your parents garage and sell it for half a billion dollars. Then you can "waste" money too.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
Woz spoke last year about this - how you should have your data, on your device, in your hand.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
I cannot understand why there is such scant mention of OwnCloud in this thread. It is THE solution to the problem of needing Dropbox like functionality on a self-hosted server.
I hate printers.
Spideroak allows online viewing via web interface. Anytime you use the web interface, however, you give up the zero knowledge portion as they need your password to decrypt the files. Also there is a shared folder feature that allows you to create a separate share password to give out to other people for a folder. Presumably use of this feature also gives up on the zero-knowledge at least for that folder.
To actually rest at ease in regards to my stored data, i want a solution that does redundant distribution of my data across 2 or more storage solutions - with something super cheap and slow like Amazon Glacier in the mix , with more than one paid service, and a physical backup of my own hard disks hooked to a local NAS box as well.
And i want an option for self-hosting the front-end too.
So if something like Ubuntu pulls the plug, gets too expensive, fucks up their client, i dont have to worry about migrating my data or changing my workflows.
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.slashdot.org Errors found while checking this document as HTML5!
I am a developer. Other users of Ubuntu One might not be. Please allow me to rephrase it more rigorously:
A hosted file synchronization service lets the user synchronize files across computers without having to either A. lease a VPS or B. buy a low-power home server and upgrade the user's home Internet access plan to a plan that allows a publicly accessible home server.
Oh For F***s Sake, not this S**t again! Serves me right for finally succumbing to the cloudy temptation.
I refused to use any of the xxxxBoxes and AmazoGoogDrives that are so popular nowadays as I don't trust any of them. I held out until my wife installed "ubuntu one" on her phone last month and set it up so that whenever she took a picture on her phone the photo immediately appeared on my computer. Within a few days, my whole family started using it on their phones and computers.
Our mothers-in-law religiously check the albums on one.ubuntu.com every night too see all the new pictures of their grandchildren and now this! Never, I say, NEVER will I put my trust in these EEEEeeeeeevil clouds again!