Dropbox will require App Indicator support on Linux | Hacker News Reader

Dropbox will require App Indicator support on Linux

help.dropbox.com

30 pointsbutz80 comments

This doesn't seem like a big deal. They use what appears to be a widely supported library for their tray icon, and if you don't want that:

"The Dropbox app can also run in headless mode, once you meet the essential system requirements [64 bit, supported filesystem, Glibc 2.27+]. This runs without a graphical user interface. You can install the app, then control Dropbox using the Linux Command Line Interface (CLI)."

Agreed. This is clearly listed as required for the “full desktop experience”. If you don’t want a tray icon, you can use headless mode.

I don't use a desktop environment, so I'll cancel my Dropbox subscription. It's a good moment to move to an european storage provider I suppose.

For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem. [1]

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863

What Dropbox does well though is on demand sync. Having frequently accessed files stored and synced locally and offline available while keeping most of the files off the limited harddrive space.

Other options like OneDrive don't have such capability on Linux or are not available there at all. It's very hard to find a suitable alternative especially a European one.

Too many moving parts, just use syncthing, it will also get you Android support and efficient synchronization across multiple nodes.

It's quite trivial

But, for anyone on a site literally called "Hacker News", a DIY dropbox should be trivial. The fact that anybody, especially, "nerds" or "hackers" would pay good money for what is effectively an FTP server with file versioning is insane.

I am mostly jealous that I didn't build and sell dropbox. Becoming an overnight millionaire by setting up an FTP server.

But seriously, modern approach, rclone[1] + "cloud" stoage (webdav, ssh, wasabi, whatever)

[1] https://rclone.org/

> It's a good moment to move to an european storage provider I suppose.

I recently started using the Hetzner Storage Share: https://www.hetzner.com/storage/storage-share/

Basically, it's just managed Nextcloud (so you're not vendor locked and if you want you can just get a VPS and host Nextcloud directly too), works okay, pricing seems fine, though there is the occasional downtime when they do updates between the versions or need to do maintenance.

Overall, would recommend at least looking at it.

> The Dropbox app can also run in headless mode, once you meet the essential system requirements. This runs without a graphical user interface. You can install the app, then control Dropbox using the Linux Command Line Interface (CLI).

From the article. So presumably this doesn’t affect you

Ah, that's good to know.

In any case, I like the alternatives that are mentioned in this thread, to be honest, so I think I'll move away from Dropbox anyway.

I switched some time ago and after lots of tests i can recommend two services. I use linux and mac.

Filen.io is e2ee and has all kinds of nice features besides sync. For example you can mount it as a network drive but it mounts some clever localhost drive that the app spawns that does caching and conflict resolution. They also support rclone and it will be soon provider in regular rclone releases. Downside is that because e2ee it doesnt yet have teams/shared folders (its very anticipated feature in progress).

The other one i can recommend is kDrive from infomaniak. We use that for work and its probably best 1to1 dropbox replacement. It has “offline” virtual files and its pretty affordable. The only downside is that the sharing between users is not as smooth ux wise as dropbox and its not e2ee.

Im using Hetzner Storage share, which is a managed Nextcloud service, since years with no issues.[1] Starts at 4.29 € for 1TB.

Also, in one company where im the IT guy, ive been self hosting a Seafile instance for years without problems.

So there are plenty of alternatives out there.

[1]https://www.hetzner.com/storage/storage-share/

That's really cool!

Question though: I guess it's not end-to-end encrypted?

You need to enable this feature in Nextcloud itself, it doesn't matter where it is hosted.

"Nextcloud features an enterprise-grade, seamlessly integrated solution for end-to-end encryption. It enables users to pick one or more folders on their desktop or mobile client for end-to-end encryption. Folders can be shared with other users and synced between devices but are not readable by the server. "[1]

EDIT: so i just checked, it seems Hetzner doesnt have the E2E option that Nextcloud has switched on, since it's deemed unstable. so one could use a tool like Cryptomator to encrypt folders locally and send that folder to the cloud [2]

[1] https://nextcloud.com/features/#end-to-end

[2] https://cryptomator.org/

> so one could use a tool like Cryptomator to encrypt folders locally and send that folder to the cloud

Yeah I already use restic, which I believe is similar (E2EE backups to cloud). But I don't need Nextcloud for that :).

I was actually interested in the Hetzner managed Nextcloud for e.g. my family, so that I can move them away from Google Drive/iCloud. I can't reasonably ask my family to use cryptomator or restic :D.

If you have a good network connection at home I'd replace that 'cloud storage' subscription with a low-power machine running e.g. Nextcloud or something similar, connected to your home network. You'll have all the storage you want for as long as you want. Make sure to make regular backups and you're done.

You end up having to use cloud for backups right? What is your setup?

Backups to friends and family with similar setups (which I installed for them) who in turn store their backups on my system. Everything is encrypted so those friends and family can be assured their private data stays private, same for me. I use Proxmox Backup Server for this purpose.

I've thought about that, but what if there's a fire at home, or a flood or something. I know, I know, unlikely, but...

Backups are the solution to this problem and backups are necessary no matter where you store your data. Don´t trust commercial 'cloud storage' providers to do this for you, make sure you have backups available and test whether those backups can be restored before you need to do this in earnest.

I hear Koofr is pretty decent.

I have been thinking about Hetzer with rsync for a while.

Ah, the HN classic experience.

Hahah... True...

I did that, switching from Dropbox to Hetzner. I'm quite satisfied.

My workflow is: Upload/backup often, Download only manually to continue working on the thing from another machine.

When you use the SSH port 23 instead of 22 you can use the regular authorized_keys mechanism for authentication.

With Syncthing?

I know filen.io as well.

For the UX designer this is totally acceptable. They lose 10% to gain 100%.

I've been using Tresorit for a few years, happy so far.

I made a synced folder of my entire workspace folder and now I have automatic backup and sync between laptop and desktop. No thinking, it just works.

I recommend pCloud. Been using them for years.

I don’t recommend pCloud after I tried moving to them and their synchronisation just broke fundamentally causing me to lose data.

Also their client encryption feature was so slow as to make it unusable.

(This was on their Linux client)

I use pCloud with restic (instead of their client). Works well.

Or just Syncthing, for peer-to-peer sync

Just use Maestral?

You don't use a desktop environment?...

No, I use a tiling window manager.

Is that not a desktop environment?

A quick comparison: think Linux Kernel (window manager) vs Linux Distribution (desktop environment).

A window manager is part of a desktop environment.

A desktop environment is usually made up of:

- A window manager (i.e. kwin, xfwm, i3, etc.)

- A file manager (i.e. Dolphin, Nautalis, etc.)

- Other utilities, such as a network configuration tool, a print config tool, maybe a web browser, a calendar or PIM system, calculator, etc.

It's one of the components of a desktop environment, but not a desktop environment itself: https://www.ghacks.net/2008/12/09/get-to-know-linux-desktop-...

Some interesting news from Dropbox app this morning: "Your desktop environment doesn't support the Dropbox tray icon. Starting May 27, 2025, Dropbox updates will require App Indicator support. To continue using the tray, update your environment."

Only Unity and KDE Plasma desktop environments are supported, others, e.g. GNOME, XFCE, MATE will require installing an extension or plugin.

I'm never going to understand why desktop environments don't support app indicators. In particular GNOME, which is meant to be accessible to a broader audience.

This was the reason I switched to KDE Plasma, which is excellent these days.

In what way is Gnome meant to be accessible to a broader audience? They clearly do not give that impression; a broader audience would be interested in tray icons, desktop icons, theming support — ideas they clearly reject.

I mean, with such a bad-faith read of what I said; you'd have to be right.

We are in agreement. No need to twist words about to make it seem like we aren't.

If I look at my Windows system tray, it's full of random crap that I never look at and never need to. Windows has to have functionality to automatically hide icons you don't interact with. I can see why Gnome has decided just to do away with the concept.

Interesting. So if I wanted to use dropbox without a desktop environment, I'd need to fake a tray, so it can pretend to put an icon in there?

(I normally use XMonad, and it's very far from a complete desktop environment. It's only a fairly minimal window manager.)

There seems to be a headless mode with lower requirements (scroll to the bottom and expand the Q about headless). This is for the ”full desktop experience”.

Oh, that makes sense. Thanks!

Gnome dropped status icon support as they think it's more consistent for the user to have a window for interacting with the application and do notifications via the notifications system.

I can see how people like a "dropbox" icon, especially Dropbox, as it makes them stand out but also I can see how it does not fit with the Gnome idea of consistency.

I used to be conditioned to using certain apps via their status icon as that was the only way to interact with them but as a long time user of Gnome I don't miss them now and use apps like syncthing-gtk via the app and notifications just fine. So for me, if I was a dropbox user, this would feel like a step backwards.

https://wiki.gnome.org/Initiatives(2f)StatusIconMigration(2f... https://wiki.gnome.org/Initiatives(2f)StatusIconMigration(2f...

I really dislike the idea of having to have a window for everything I want to interact with. It feels cluttered and messy - not everything needs to have a whole damn window imo.

Too bad, because I like a lot of the rest of the Gnome UI. But this pattern is the wrong way to go imo.

With syncthing-gtk, how do you quickly pause/continue sync for example? Do you need to open the whole damn thing just to do one simple action?

Honestly it's the first thing I install on Gnome. It's just annoying that it's not on by default and I don't understand what the devs have against it. I use the Tailscale, Nextcloud, ProtonVPN and Solaar indicators.

I could understand if they "rethought" how indicators work, but why make everyone jump through the hoop of installing an extension? (At least that is how it is on Arch and NixOS, Ubuntu may be different).

Other than this, I absolutely love Gnome, I feel 0 need to tweak (other than before mentioned), some nicer tiling would be nice thought ;) Also: Requiring an App Indicator seems a bit harsh on the more minimal DEs. Are there any apps that are like a window but with your indicators or something?

I like the "Forge" extension for tiling: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/4481/forge/

> Are there any apps that are like a window but with your indicators or something?

Yes, and the API isn't very complex so you could easily write your own indicator host if you wanted to anyway.

Time to get an FTP account, mount it locally with curlftpfs, and then use SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

At least you won't loose folders, it's become a meme (1). My wife told me that at her office they had important folders just disappear in dropbox, luckily they keep copies.

(1) https://www.youtube.com/shorts/F2Sl7cMKAdQ

Poor guy is never going to live that comment down, is he?

Or restic with pretty much any cloud provider.

What's the news?

System tray has been with us since Windows 95

The Gnome desktop considers systray icons useless and by default does not ship or support any systray. If I understand the article correctly, the Dropbox client can no longer run on defsult Gnome desktops.

I run gnome on all my machines with displays, for many years now. I never paid much thought to what "AppIndicator" is, but I've always used what I believe you're calling "systray", if I understand correctly?

I have temperature and network gauges on the top right next to my battery/audio/WiFi indicators. My work laptop (Ubuntu) has indicators up there for Livepatch and Mattermost, or are these not the same thing?

As far as I recall, I've not had to do anything particularly special other than install the extension for the thing I want, Freon etc, and the Livepatch and Mattermost ones were just there whether I wanted them or not.

It's possible I did something when I setup Gnome on my personal laptop (Arch) but other machines are running Ubuntu and I think it just did this OOB.

This is because Ubuntu ships with extensions to restore AppIndicator (systray) functionality on Gnome.

That makes sense, thanks for the info!

To be fair, Gnome has made some questionable UX decisions - including this one.

Interesting UX decisions and Gnome have gone hand in hand since I first came across it.

The earliest one I remember was when they discovered spatial memory and promptly decided that, by default, every Nautilus folder should open in a new top-level window, cluttering up my desktop before I could even start working.

ELI5: There were two standards how to implement a system tray: an old one and a new one. Dropbox is dropping support for the old standard.

One has to be deliberately obtuse to pretend to not see how ridiculous it is to make having a third-party application that shows little icons in the corner of the screen a hard requirement for a cloud file sync application.

I use Linux and don't have a taskbar, a topbar, a sysbar, nor anything similar. I've never seen the need for one when I can manage my windows in other ways and have more screen real estate available. What does that have to do with syncing my files?

It's a requirement for the GUI. The CLI still works without any requirements. If I understood things correctly. I don't have a linux machine on hand and don't use dropbox anyways.

Perhaps people like you (and I) are not the target audience. I've always felt Dropbox was more of an "typical user" (as opposed to power user) file sync; I used it some years ago but never really liked it, I roll my own now.

I wonder whether Dropbox looked at some stats and realised that many of their users are on beginner-friendly distros/desktops and that such a requirement would help (them) more than it would hurt (users).

As have other desktop OSes since forever.

The uproar for little details like this, is why Linux Desktop is never going to make it on mainstream.

On the other hand, the very reason I use Linux is that I get more freedom, including the freedom to choose my window manager.

I don't care so much about Linux Desktop becoming mainstream. Probably it would make it look more like those OSes I like less. I don't really get those comments I regularly see where people go "if you don't make it look like Windows, people won't migrate to your distro". If I wanted Windows, I would use Windows. And I don't want people who want Windows to come to my distro.

Meanwhile Valve failed to convince games industry to care about GNU/Linux as platform, and has to make use of Proton to make SteamOS relevant, even though PlayStation and Android are very much Linux like on their technology stack.

I think that Proton works pretty well. I am very impressed by Valve's effort there and the amount of games that are now available on Linux.

But I don't think it's related to the Desktop environment, is it? Somehow I feel like many people who complain about Linux not being "mainstream material" want Windows, but free and without ads/trackers.

I don't want Windows, I want freedom. Freedom to choose my init system, my window manager, my filesystem, my terminal, hell even my libc.

The thing is, I don't think it can happen with a mainstream system. The industry won't care about supporting Linux unless there is critical mass, and in order to have critical mass you have to onboard all those people who want Windows (but free), not Linux. Already now, too many projects only work with the latest Ubuntu and assume systemd and some specific dependencies.

If Ubuntu were to become mainstream, instead of having Windows, macOS and Linux I fear we would have Windows, macOS, Ubuntu and Linux. Not sure it would change anything for me.

Actually only since (i think) windows 11: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20030910-00/?p=42...

"I think the reason people started calling it the “system tray” is that on Win95 there was a program called “systray.exe” that displayed some icons in the notification area: volume control, PCMCIA (as it was then called) status, battery meter. If you killed systray.exe, you lost those notification icons. So people thought, “Ah, systray must be the component that manages those icons, and I bet its name is ‘system tray’.” Thus began the misconception that we have been trying to eradicate for over eight years…"

Doesn't change the feature was already there, with Win32 APIs to interact with it.

Yeah, but until Windows 11 it was the notification area! But for Windows 11 it looks like they gave up on this fight, finally, and the general UI in Windows 11 actually now calls it the system tray. So presumably that is now its official name.

Everything old is new again: https://askubuntu.com/questions/821061/dropbox-appindicator-...

Should your setup need it, might be able to hack support through env vars. Innovation, everyone.

I finally go so fed up with drop box, every time I login more and more popups trying to get me to upgrade, etc. It was the final push to just use my NAS Software to self host my files. In the past it wasn't as reliable as DropBox but with hardware now and Tailscale its much easier and much better experience.

It's kinda sad how much "linux desktop" relies on GTK. I have my beef with dbus as well, but I wonder if you could do the indicator icons by only using the dbus protocol.

Dropbox is scanning every file users upload. You can lose your whole paid account in a moment of seconds with years of work because they didn't like something. Their response: you can sue us in an American court, good luck. Using Dropbox, you need to have a backup of your data outside of it which pretty much negates the whole aspect of using it in the first place.

Moved to Nextcloud and never felt better.

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