I did, and then I reinstalled it when I saw that it's the only thing that works.
Alternatives aren't as good as dropbox. Google drive is a close second, but without official linux client it's borderline useless to me - also their photo backup system is too complicated with g+, private/public albums, sharing, galleries etc and I don't want to spend time figuring it out when I just want simple photo backup service that I enable with one click.
I don't want spend time setting up my own servers, I don't want to use beta software, I don't want buggy 3rd party software, I don't want to compile stuff from sources.
I want to install something that works out of the box and is cross platform, and right now dropbox is literally the only option there is.
"I don't want spend time setting up my own servers, I don't want to use beta software, I don't want buggy 3rd party software, I don't want to compile stuff from sources."
May we invite you, provided you just need cloud storage and not happy-clicky-gui-sharing, to try rsync.net[1] ?
Just works on any unix, including mac, with nothing to install. HN discount, as always.[2]
> Google drive is a close second, but without official linux client it's borderline useless to me - also their photo backup system is too complicated with g+, private/public albums, sharing, galleries etc and I don't want to spend time figuring it out when I just want simple photo backup service that I enable with one click.
I use Wuala, which not only has a Linux client, but a FUSE module for true ease of use. It also does client-side encryption, and if you forget your password, you've lost your data, which is how it should work. I'm also reasonably pleased with the Windows and Android clients, though I don't use them nearly as much.
That one seems to be targeted more at periodical backups than what dropbox does, which is more closer to syncing and backing up at the same time.
Anyway, no I did not try it. From the website "It works with Amazon S3, Windows Live SkyDrive, Google Drive (Google Docs), Rackspace Cloud Files or WebDAV, SSH, FTP"
I've heard of 5 of those, I know how to use 3 for storage, I have accounts with only 2 (gmail, outlook), but 0 of them have clients that work on android and linux.
And using different, non official, clients on different platforms just doesn't sound like a install and forget about it type of deal like dropbox has. Can I take a picture on my phone and see it a minute later on my computer and vice versa? My guess would be "no".
As far as encryption and it being open source goes, I couldn't care less about that. I don't store too sensitive data on dropbox so I don't care if NSA, dropbox or some other government agency has easy access to my data on their servers.
As far as the open source argument goes it's simply irrelevant to me. I don't have time nor knowledge to go over its source and I doubt that many other people do, as far as I'm concerned the fact that it's open source doesn't change anything regarding to either security or functionality of that software.
I still stand by my statement that literally not a single piece of software exists that does the same as dropbox in terms of stability, functionality, ease of use, and cross platform compatibility.
> I still stand by my statement that literally not a single piece of software exists that does the same as dropbox in terms of stability,
That seems a bit odd, since 4 sentences previously you state that you are pretty unfamiliar with the space "I've heard of 5 of those, I know how to use 3 for storage".
Rackspace cloud files, as one of the things I haven't used from that list, is not even same thing as dropbox. I've researched software like dropbox when I deactivated it, I did not look into all possible file storage offers that may or may not work with 3rd party clients (such as duplicati, which doesn't have android client as far as I can tell).
Another often suggested option from comments here wuala did not work on my phone, it crashed instantly (not sure if it's fixed now). Spideroak was buggy iirc, I did try it but I'm not totally sure why I dropped it.
Also, both of those options are roughly 10 times more expensive than dropbox when you compare GB/$.
Alternatives aren't as good as dropbox. Google drive is a close second, but without official linux client it's borderline useless to me - also their photo backup system is too complicated with g+, private/public albums, sharing, galleries etc and I don't want to spend time figuring it out when I just want simple photo backup service that I enable with one click.
I don't want spend time setting up my own servers, I don't want to use beta software, I don't want buggy 3rd party software, I don't want to compile stuff from sources.
I want to install something that works out of the box and is cross platform, and right now dropbox is literally the only option there is.