Why rely on them at all? Dollar per GB they cost more than literally any other solution with file storage.

homebrewer 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

Years ago, their desktop client was the only one among popular similar services that supported proper delta sync while also covering all major platforms. Absolutely indispensable if you used it with things like TrueCrypt containers, where changing one byte within would cause most sync clients to resend the whole 50 GB, or however large it was. Dropbox handled this fine and would finish in a couple of seconds (actually sending new data, not just pretending it did that).

I don't know how it is these days, wouldn't be surprised if other commercial services still haven't figured it out.

	▲	smileybarry 3 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Google Drive added delta sync this year, while OneDrive added it in 2020 apparently. I also overstayed with Dropbox for that reason, and now I don't see a real reason for their higher $/GB. Though their client is more stable than Google Drive from my experience (which randomly stops working on Windows often enough), OneDrive has been rock solid for me on both Windows and macOS.
	▲	Arnavion 3 days ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		I do this with a WebDAV server (Fastmail Files) by breaking up my encrypted volume into 10MiB chunks, so that the sync has the granularity of that, plus a FUSE script to present the directory containing the chunks as a single block device for mounting. Obviously not cross-platform though.
	▲	layer8 3 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		AFAIK that's still their USP.

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a0123 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The only cloud storage that has a decent Linux client is Dropbox.

Koofr is a decent cloud solution. Their client is horrendous across all platforms and lacks the most basic functionalities.

You can argue OneDrive / GoogleDrive are semi decent if you also use insync, which adds another license to purchase when a basic client should come free with the service you've already bought.

And no, rsync doesn't come even close to it in terms of functionality/simplicity, no matter how much hardened Linux users who haven't been outside since 1988 are trying to convince everyone otherwise.

	▲	pacifika 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		I can recommend JottaCloud.

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bayindirh 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Because they provide nice features on top of basic file storage. If you use them, they justify the cost. If you don't need them, there's always pCloud.

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scarface_74 3 days ago | parent [-]

With either Google or Microsoft, you get a complete office suite for the same price including storage

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derefr 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

Right, and that's what Dropbox Paper was probably originally an attempt at working toward, from the opposite direction — "We have Google Drive, now we just need Google Docs."

It should be obvious that "a whole collaborative office suite" is not the kind of thing a regular company can build as an extension play... but somehow some manager inside Dropbox convinced them that direction was possible. At least for a while. Seems they've gradually come to their senses.

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bayindirh 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

For various reasons, I have all three of them. There are some missing things in Google and Microsoft's offerings. Namely:

1. App integration (3rd parties can access to a single folder in your Dropbox, allowing "purchase to Dropbox" directly. Many merchants automatically update the files if they receive updates, too.

2. Auto OCR, incl. handwriting. My old comics which are not English are OCRd, and I can do full-text search inside them, which is very useful for me.

3. Fast, auto transcription in many languages. I needed a transcription of a file recently. All services needed memberships, etc. I did it from Google cloud API toolbox. However when I uploaded the the same file to Dropbox, I saw a transcription button. It produced equally good results in way less time.

4. Send-a-copy (aka Transfer). I don't want to share and try to remember to disable links. My Dropbox membership contains a complete "WeTransfer" replacement, and I use it a lot.

5. Request files. I open a link, people send in the files I need, then the "dropbox" closes automatically. I get notifications for uploads, too.

6. Funnily, a working Linux client.

...and possibly more I don't use or can't remember right now.

	▲	privatelypublic 3 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Does dropbox still N-way "double dip" on #1 by counting the shared folders against your and the authors storage?
	▲	rapidaneurism 3 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		The Linux client is what did it for me, and why I am still using it.