5 million Dropboxes
blog.dropbox.com
blog.dropbox.com
Makes me wonder how hard it is to download a file by hash (via the Linux client, parts of which are open-source), without having the file, or how easy it would be for HBO or some other media company to say "here are the hashes for scene rips of The Wire--please furnish matching account emails, thanks".
The cloud storage play is huge for Apple... first they sell you the video, then they sell you the space to store the video, but it doesn't actually take them anymore hard drive space.
And as the media gets bigger and bigger (HD today, who knows tomorrow), Apple sells you more and more storage "space" and their costs only go up marginally.
It's the stuff billion dollar business plans are made of.
-- Every time a video is encoded, it hashes differently. So a studio could find a torrented file and find people downloaded that exact copy, but they couldn't just ask for every copy of a show.
-- If this became a problem, you could toss some random metadata on a file and it would hash differently. Or zip a file/program with a text file containing a guid. Etc.
Really? Even with the exact same source file and exact same codecs/methodology? Why is that, is there an "encoding time" metadata field or something?
IE, John uploads True Blood Episode 4, Season 12.
Paul tries to upload the same file. They match exactly (Except maybe for names). The Uploader negates the upload and makes it look like the file is now in Paul's list, when really only one copy exists.
Now if only they could sort out the folder sharing model so large folders shared by someone else (who upgraded) don't use up my personal space... (yeah, I know they're working on it.. hurry up!)
--It is an easy way to share music with a couple friends who aren't tech savvy. Installing it was easy for them and I was able to say "just drag it from iTunes to your dropbox folder" and it worked. Other ways of sharing were too complex.
--It keeps software that doesn't have built in syncing synced. I use it to sync 1Password and more importantly (to me) PersonalBrain between my home and work computers. It works fast and flawlessly.
--It's an easy way to transfer files from home/work. Sometimes I'll download an app or something that I know I'll end up redownloading again at home. With dropbox I just throw it in there and when I get home I don't have to find the download link and wait for it to download, I just open the folder and there it is.
--It keeps a few files I use all the time available from anywhere. Mostly ebooks, a couple videos and a few documents and templates (resume etc.).
Overall though it's the ease of use and reliability that keeps me using it. Even if it could do all that but was a pain to use/install I'd probably still be searching for other solutions.
Exactly as I said. It basically uploads and downloads files; your hyphenated examples are all under the category of "uploading and downloading". It does other things, but that's basically it. I hate it when I speak plain facts and get everybody disagreeing with me.
As you have seen others mention, by creating a solution to a nontrivial problem (and if you have ever had to deal with file synchronization you know this is not simple) it has enabled usage scenarios that were previously too difficult to accomplish or at least not worth the hassle. So I can understand people's reactions to your comments.
- features: Upload and download
- benefits: Easy way to share music, easy way to transfer files home/work, easy way to keep software synced etc
You've just gone to the opposite extreme.
Shell scripting is awesome. All it does is allow you to run C programs that write to one another's IO streams, but with this, you can chain pre-made processes together in any way you wish, without having to compile a single new line of code.
Forth is awesome, Lisp is awesome, LEGO is awesome. (Can you see where I'm going with this?) The awe is not inspired by what the thing does on its own; the awe comes from what the thing enables you to do, and how simple the solution is that solves so many different problems.
Except I didn't have to teach my mom how to use it.
Except that I never have to worry if it's working correctly.
Except that it works on every platform I use.
Except that it's just a folder on my computer.
These aren't features you put on a retail box, but they are the features that set Dropbox apart. "Just works" is incredibly easy to say but incredibly hard to engineer.
Whenever I demo something that I've built that seems mind-numbingly simple in the demo, I have to remind myself that things that work well should seem simple.
"That's it?" is a sign of success.
Or, if you don't like that example, compare it to just about any online game. Consider the incredible complexity and operation requirements of Call of Duty (or whatever you like) and then come up with an adjective for it. How about "awesome". Well, no, that won't do, because Dropbox is "awesome" and Call of Duty is several 1000 times more awesome, by far.
Not to mention that most games are also playable by non-technical people.
Get some perspective people. Fanboyism is really pathetic and there's a lot of it going on right here.
Yes. We all own one don't we? Ever tried to toast bread without a toaster? It takes far more effort, is far less efficient, and the results are usually far less consistent.
Let me ask you guys one thing though: Is there anyone here willing to admit that they would be incapable of making a workable clone of dropbox in a reasonable amount of time--not on the same scale, of course. The fact that almost everyone who comes to this website could produce something of that complexity is maybe a clue into all this irrationality. Most of us, by contrast, couldn't make Call of Duty (a game which, actually, I've never played). Maybe we're setting our standards where our capabilities are?
I see your point. But having struggled with file syncing for literally decades, having somebody come along and make it so easily that it seems unimpressive and obvious really is very cool.
It's kinda like the old adage, "the best special FX in a movie are the ones you don't notice."
Remember there is a difference between making synching software, which is relatively easy, and making synching software that is absolutely reliable (so far as I've seen) and easy to use for anyone. These things are relatively hard.
Now, to do that and produce a client for every major OS out there as well as a web interface... Yes, I am impressed.
I just wish they had one smaller tier out there though. It would be alot easier to justify say $60 a year on my tight budget than it is $10 a month (smallest paid tier last I checked...)
I don't know Swombat, so I don't mean to misattribute thoughts to him, but I believe there is truth to the perspective I described. Also, I am not suggesting you "just don't get startups" or anything dumb like that.
To put it another way—it takes more people to build a bridge than to craft a samurai sword, but which metalworker brought more experience to bear? Games are regularly pushed out by developers just starting in the industry—all that's required of them is a willingness to be on the bleeding edge of graphics hardware APIs, and precious, precious manhours. Dropbox, on the other hand, could only have been designed by someone with an extremely high aptitude for user interfaces.
Toasters kick a lot of ass, and certainly qualify as awesome. Though I still think mankind's greatest invention is air conditioning (seriously).
So... back to using gmail-drive
You obviously have no idea just how many things can go wrong in that apparently simple process. With dropbox, it just doesn't go wrong. That's what's awesome about it - flawless, works every time, and quasi-instant.
It's 20x quicker, if i want to give a file to my cofounder who's sitting next to me, to put it in our shared dropbox than to use any other method of sharing. Every other method of sharing takes at least 10-20 seconds or more. Dropbox takes half a second. (only exception being, of course, very large files, where usb sticks still help)
What Dropbox does may not be awe-inspiring when considered in isolation, but the sheer number of failed predecessors who couldn't solve this conceptually simple problem is very impressive.
http://xs4all.nl - € 29,95 per month for 4M Internet.
http://internode.on.net - $49.95 per month for 1.5M Internet; 50 gigabyte cap - downloads and uploads are counted.
Scary smart folks.
With more users, I'm curious if paid accounts are growing at the same rate as free accounts. I also pretty much assume that a much higher percentage of all users in the US will be paid accounts versus other countries, but would be curious what their actual experience is.
I really hope they get their API sorted soon, i've been holding off looking at alternatives because it's always "close" but now i'm starting to consider other options.
My dropbox is about 35 GB, I just installed dropbox on a brand new computer and the download speed is 7KB/sec. It will literally take almost 20 days to sync my files.
That's terrible.
By the way, I'm an early adopter and have introduced dropbox to many people, I just hope download speeds were somewhat decent.
http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest?flash=1
My network downloads 4MB/sec
The computer has a fresh install of snow leopard and everything else is fast.
I would also like to see stats, by free vs paid accounts? How many of the free account actually use their account are close to their quota limits?
It would be nice to know how big can Dropbox scale, how many servers they can afford, etc ... .