<story><title>Dropbox silently installed new file manager app on users’ systems</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/07/dropbox-silently-installs-new-file-manager-app-on-users-systems/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bhouston</author><text>&amp;gt; &amp;quot;But,&amp;quot; you may ask, &amp;quot;so much more you could do! What about task management, calendaring, customized dashboards, virtual white boarding. More than just folders and files!&amp;quot;
&amp;gt;
&amp;gt; No, shut up. People don&amp;#x27;t use that crap. They just want a folder. A folder that syncs.&lt;p&gt;This argument is a good one but it only covers the rise of Dropbox.  We are now in a different era.&lt;p&gt;Dropbox&amp;#x27;s functionality is now table stakes and not something new.  Windows by default has cloud sync, macOS does as well.  We switched at our company from Dropbox to Google Drive Stream.  Box is really focused on enterprise solutions -- lots of permissions, probably too much in my opinion but C-suite like that shit.&lt;p&gt;This quora answer is irrelevant in the current context.  Dropbox needs to figure out how to stay in a commoditized market where their special sauce is being integrated into OSes and larger offerings (G-Suite.)&lt;p&gt;Maybe a return to simplicity is it?  But we moved away from the simple solution because it wasn&amp;#x27;t sufficent for our needs.  And others are just never adopting it in the first place because it is built into their OS or their app suite.   Dropbox has a long-term relevancy problem here that they have not cracked.</text></item><item><author>CPLX</author><text>This seems like a good time to resurface the worlds best Quora answer, by Michael Wolfe. Answering “Why is Dropbox more popular than other tools with similar functionality?”:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Well, let&amp;#x27;s take a step back and think about the sync problem and what the ideal solution for it would do:&lt;p&gt;There would be a folder.
You&amp;#x27;d put your stuff in it.
It would sync.
They built that.&lt;p&gt;Why didn&amp;#x27;t anyone else build that?  I have no idea.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;But,&amp;quot; you may ask, &amp;quot;so much more you could do!  What about task management, calendaring, customized dashboards, virtual white boarding.  More than just folders and files!&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;No, shut up.  People don&amp;#x27;t use that crap.  They just want a folder.  A folder that syncs.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;But,&amp;quot; you may say, &amp;quot;this is valuable data...certainly users will feel more comfortable tying their data to Windows Live, Apple Mobile Me, or a name they already know.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;No, shut up.  Not a single person on Earth wakes up in the morning worried about deriving more value from their Windows Live login.  People already trust folders.  And Dropbox looks just like a folder.  One that syncs.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;But,&amp;quot; you may say, &amp;quot;folders are so 1995.  why not leverage the full power of the web?  With HTML 5 you can drag and drop files, you can build intergalactic dashboards of stats showing how much storage you are using, you can publish your files as RSS feeds and tweets, and you can add your company logo!&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;No, shut up.  Most of the world doesn&amp;#x27;t sit in front of their browser all day.   If they do, it is IE 6 at work that they are not allowed to upgrade.  Browsers suck for these kinds of things.  Their stuff is already in folders.  They just want a folder.  That syncs.&lt;p&gt;That is what it does.
&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.quora.com&amp;#x2F;Dropbox&amp;#x2F;Why-is-Dropbox-more-popular-than-other-programs-with-similar-functionality&amp;#x2F;answer&amp;#x2F;Michael-Wolfe&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.quora.com&amp;#x2F;Dropbox&amp;#x2F;Why-is-Dropbox-more-popular-tha...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Oh well.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>braythwayt</author><text>&lt;i&gt;Dropbox needs to figure out how to stay in a commoditized market where their special sauce is being integrated into OSes and larger offerings (G-Suite.)&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;With respect, that is Dropbox&amp;#x27;s problem. Dropbox needs to do that, But I don&amp;#x27;t need Dropbox to do that.&lt;p&gt;The same is true of music-playing apps. Once they cost money and added value. Then platforms all started making &amp;quot;play this music file&amp;quot; free. The purveyors all tried to add more value. And there are a few specialized music players kicking around.&lt;p&gt;But most went away, the business model was no longer viable, and the move into adding lots of functionality pushed them into a niche.&lt;p&gt;I agree that Dropbox is facing an existential crisis. If Apple delivers on some of its promised new iCloud folder sharing functionality, I will end my Dropbox subscription, and no amount of &amp;quot;We&amp;#x27;re a collaboration platform&amp;quot; will change that.&lt;p&gt;Dropbox knows that, and is going in the direction of getting money from someone else. Will they succeed? Maybe, maybe not. But either way, most of their existing user base is finding their less useful and less valuable as they make this transition.&lt;p&gt;Shrug.&lt;p&gt;I have witnessed this so many times over the last thirty-five years. One set of forces acts to take something that was originally just for companies, and &amp;quot;Consumerizes&amp;quot; it. Spreadsheets are common for people to track all kinds of personal things. Kids use them in school.&lt;p&gt;In the opposite direction, companies chasing the money &amp;quot;Enterprise&amp;quot; their consumer offerings, abandoning the users that built them in the first place.&lt;p&gt;Same as it ever was.</text></comment>
<story><title>Dropbox silently installed new file manager app on users’ systems</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/07/dropbox-silently-installs-new-file-manager-app-on-users-systems/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bhouston</author><text>&amp;gt; &amp;quot;But,&amp;quot; you may ask, &amp;quot;so much more you could do! What about task management, calendaring, customized dashboards, virtual white boarding. More than just folders and files!&amp;quot;
&amp;gt;
&amp;gt; No, shut up. People don&amp;#x27;t use that crap. They just want a folder. A folder that syncs.&lt;p&gt;This argument is a good one but it only covers the rise of Dropbox.  We are now in a different era.&lt;p&gt;Dropbox&amp;#x27;s functionality is now table stakes and not something new.  Windows by default has cloud sync, macOS does as well.  We switched at our company from Dropbox to Google Drive Stream.  Box is really focused on enterprise solutions -- lots of permissions, probably too much in my opinion but C-suite like that shit.&lt;p&gt;This quora answer is irrelevant in the current context.  Dropbox needs to figure out how to stay in a commoditized market where their special sauce is being integrated into OSes and larger offerings (G-Suite.)&lt;p&gt;Maybe a return to simplicity is it?  But we moved away from the simple solution because it wasn&amp;#x27;t sufficent for our needs.  And others are just never adopting it in the first place because it is built into their OS or their app suite.   Dropbox has a long-term relevancy problem here that they have not cracked.</text></item><item><author>CPLX</author><text>This seems like a good time to resurface the worlds best Quora answer, by Michael Wolfe. Answering “Why is Dropbox more popular than other tools with similar functionality?”:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Well, let&amp;#x27;s take a step back and think about the sync problem and what the ideal solution for it would do:&lt;p&gt;There would be a folder.
You&amp;#x27;d put your stuff in it.
It would sync.
They built that.&lt;p&gt;Why didn&amp;#x27;t anyone else build that?  I have no idea.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;But,&amp;quot; you may ask, &amp;quot;so much more you could do!  What about task management, calendaring, customized dashboards, virtual white boarding.  More than just folders and files!&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;No, shut up.  People don&amp;#x27;t use that crap.  They just want a folder.  A folder that syncs.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;But,&amp;quot; you may say, &amp;quot;this is valuable data...certainly users will feel more comfortable tying their data to Windows Live, Apple Mobile Me, or a name they already know.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;No, shut up.  Not a single person on Earth wakes up in the morning worried about deriving more value from their Windows Live login.  People already trust folders.  And Dropbox looks just like a folder.  One that syncs.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;But,&amp;quot; you may say, &amp;quot;folders are so 1995.  why not leverage the full power of the web?  With HTML 5 you can drag and drop files, you can build intergalactic dashboards of stats showing how much storage you are using, you can publish your files as RSS feeds and tweets, and you can add your company logo!&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;No, shut up.  Most of the world doesn&amp;#x27;t sit in front of their browser all day.   If they do, it is IE 6 at work that they are not allowed to upgrade.  Browsers suck for these kinds of things.  Their stuff is already in folders.  They just want a folder.  That syncs.&lt;p&gt;That is what it does.
&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.quora.com&amp;#x2F;Dropbox&amp;#x2F;Why-is-Dropbox-more-popular-than-other-programs-with-similar-functionality&amp;#x2F;answer&amp;#x2F;Michael-Wolfe&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.quora.com&amp;#x2F;Dropbox&amp;#x2F;Why-is-Dropbox-more-popular-tha...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Oh well.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mrlala</author><text>Dropbox can handle a LOT of files.  I haven&amp;#x27;t seen any other service that doesn&amp;#x27;t just break.&lt;p&gt;OneDrive cannot handle tons of files.  It just doesn&amp;#x27;t work.  It ends up freezing, you have no idea what&amp;#x27;s going on.  Can&amp;#x27;t speak to macOS related stuff.&lt;p&gt;We finally were able to migrate off of this.. but we had a VERY file hefty folder structure.  Instead of databases we chose to keep things in individual files for various reasons.  Needless to say this didn&amp;#x27;t scale well, and there were about 750k files on the structure.  Most of this was archival, but we simply didn&amp;#x27;t have the time or care enough to reduce the number of files.. we just wanted to be able to sync this to cloud data as is.  Many files were super small, so never an absolute size thing just a LOT of files.  And a chunk would keep changing throughout the day.&lt;p&gt;Dropbox was able to handle this for years- never an issue.  Yeah it was fairly CPU intensive, but it worked very well.&lt;p&gt;I tried OneDrive on this.. what a nightmare.  I tried owncloud, bittorrent sync, some others I can&amp;#x27;t even recall.  Granted this has been about 3-4 years since I really tried some other ones with lots of files, but I was so annoyed every time I did.</text></comment>