Dropbox Wants To Replace Your Hard Disk 445
Barence writes "Dropbox has kicked off its first developer conference with the stated goal of replacing the hard disk. 'We are replacing the hard drive,' said Dropbox CEO Drew Houston. 'I don't mean that you're going to unscrew your MacBook and find a Dropbox inside, but the spiritual successor to the hard drive is what we're launching.' The new Dropbox Platform includes tools for developers that will allow them to use Dropbox to sync app data between devices. The company's new APIs will also make it easier for app developers to include plugins that save to Dropbox, or choose files stored in the service for use within apps."
Re:Yay! (Score:4, Interesting)
Now network failures can cripple more of my devices. So long productivity!
Let alone the massive lag of loading or storing anything of size.
Some people fall for it though (Score:5, Interesting)
Paul Thurrott, the world's premier Microsoft fanboy, has been running a few articles about his concept of "zero data" - that is, keeping ALL computer data where feasible in the Cloud as opposed to your local HDD. He does so willingly because he has in his mind too much clutter, and would rather let some corporation take control over it instead of trimming what he has down to something more reasonable:
http://winsupersite.com/cloud/zero-data-hardest-part-saying-goodbye [winsupersite.com]
http://winsupersite.com/cloud/zero-data-reducing-storage-clutter [winsupersite.com]
It's one thing to give away so much of your personal data to a company - it's anther thing to then perform destruction over your local copies so everything you've ever done is totally out of your control. To me, the idea of giving away that level of control over MY data to a company is totally horrifying, but apparently I'm too stubborn and old-fashioned by saying so. Oh well.
Re:Mod parent up! (Score:4, Interesting)
If the NSA wants into my local file stores, they have to come into my apartment and steal them.
THEN decrypt them.
Re:Farts in their general direction. (Score:5, Interesting)
It's not just about privacy.. it's about dependency. Considering the current crop of 'cloud' providers, whether they be storage or applications, truly be trusted? Current trends suggest not. Google keeps changing shit the fuck around just because they can, and megaupload was wiped out by a government that didn't give two shits whether your data was legal or not.
Having reliable tools is only part of it.. They also have to be reliably available. If they are not then that is an even greater inconvenience.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Farts in their general direction. (Score:5, Interesting)
"Not all things 'cloud' are bad."
No, BUT...
As with any technology, it should have something better to offer than what is existing, at a comparable cost. Or much better at higher cost. Dropbox is neither, plus they have been dishonest to their customers in the pat.
(I am referring to their promise of end-to-end encryption, when in fact they were de-duping uploads, which requires access to the UN-encrypted content. When they were caught, it was "oops, guys, I guess we goofed" when in fact it is not even remotely possible that it was anything but 100% deliberate.)
So what you actually have is greater cost, plus security concerns... for a rather minor amount of convenience.
I have a great way to sync all my files with no need for an external server. It's called Git. And there are about 50 other ways that aren't a lot of trouble.
Re:Farts in their general direction. (Score:5, Interesting)