[akg_67]

> what's their value proposition in 2017?

I have been paid user of Dropbox for now 4+ years. The reason I have stuck with it because "It works! plain and simple." I have tried other storage services like Google, iCloud and Box. But none match the simplicity, consistency, invisibility, cross-platform, seamless features of Dropbox. Google is untrustworthy because you never know when they discontinue any service. They have no concept of customer service. They might well be running by robots. I experienced Box at work, forced by the work IT group. IT wasn't very willing to hand out Box accounts unless you can justify business use case , people who used it didn't like it. Box interface was always in your way if you wanted to do anything stored in Box, few extra clicks to do anything. Most people who needed to collaborate used free Dropbox to get around all restrictions. iCloud is okay but only seems to work with Apple ecosystem. I still can't figure out how to access files in iCloud from my Mac and iPhone. Works great for photos and contacts but not so much for files. While Dropbox has released new features, I have never bothered with any.

IMO, Dropbox need to continue focusing their service seamless. There only mistake was to not go after business/enterprise earlier. They could have killed Box easily. While Box was hiring consultants and Enterprise sales people to pitch to IT groups (top down) Dropbox had the mindshare of employees (bottoms up). They were Dropbox champions, just Dropbox failed to leverage that in enterprise.

[krzrak]

> Google is untrustworthy because you never know when they discontinue any service. They have no concept of customer service. They might well be running by robots.

With Dropbox is the same. Some time ago a weird bug occured on my Dropbox account and I reported it. Being paying customer (3 accounts) I expected my issue to be handled professionally, as with most of other services that I use. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. My issue was handled by someone ho had no clue what is the problem and how their service works and looks. During 20+ emails exchange I got mostly advices of reinstalling the applications, etc. They ignored my requests to pass the ticket to someone more knowledgeable. I had to complain on their Facebook page to get the task read by someone else and (finally) get passed to "analysis". But then, weeks passed without word from them. When I finally asked about the progress, I got answer meaning "your issue is not important enough for us, so nobody is working on it right now and don't expect it will change in the near future". Then some time more passed and they finally fixed the bug (it was something on their side, fix was listed in the mobile app changelog). I asked for an account credit for a time when the app wasn't working properly, which influenced my day-to-day work (which is normal with other services), but were repeatedly told to "fk off" in more or less polite way and then ignored completely.

So it seems that Dropbox is introducing the "best" Google customer service policies.

[B1FF_PSUVM]

> is introducing

Nah, they've always been good at not listening to what they don't want to hear.

People were asking about client-side encryption back in 2009, and they've been mishearing for all these years. Top notch.

[msh]

Well I guess they don't want to pay for the extra storage when they can't dedup files.

[mockindignant]

I understand what you are saying, and that is a somewhat plausible story. Another one is that search is more difficult.

But the reality is I think for any company with serious security policy will have to pass on a service that only "sort of" secures their files.

There are a lot of people also who will not ever consider going with dropbox because they have on their board (Rice) someone who has a sordid track record when it comes to warrantless wiretapping, torture, and so forth.

In my opinion dropbox is OK for sharing docs between 2 people as long as the doc is not something you consider private. If you want privacy though (business files/docs/artifacts), best to pick something else.

[paholg]

There are methods of client-side encryption that still allow for deduplication.

For example, use a hash of the file as the encryption key, then encrypt that hash with the client's key.

[nextlevelwizard]

>I still can't figure out how to access files in iCloud from my Mac and iPhone.

On Mac I just open the iCloud folder and the files are there, just like Dropbox

On iPhone I open the iCloud Drive app and the files are there just like on Mac, much like in Dropbox pp expect Dropbox uses list format.

Personally I like iCloud currently more, but as you said it only works in Apple ecosystem (which I'm currently fine with). Recently I also setup OwnCloud on my RPi and it seems to fill my niche usage just fine as well, but I still don't quite trust it.

[TheAceOfHearts]

FYI, there's also iCloud for Windows [0], and some people claim to have gotten it to work with Wine [1] on Ubuntu.

[0] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204283

[1] https://askubuntu.com/questions/195603/are-there-any-ways-to...

[nextlevelwizard]

I have the Windows client installed on my "gaming pc", but it doesn't seem to sync well enough. For example I can't find my password manager vault there at all.

[lloeki]

The iCloud Drive folder is indeed "just files" but it’s stored sort of hidden in a wickedly long path†. Firing up a terminal and cd’ing into ~/Dropbox is arguably easier than having to drag and drop a file in there from Finder just to have the correct path.

† "~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs"

[nextlevelwizard]

How about ~/Desktop? That's mirrored in iCloud for sure. Possibly also other paths, but that's sort of hidden knowledge.

Usually when I use it I just drag files into the shortcut in Finder, but I guess that's a point for Dropbox. Of course you can just make symlink with ~/iCloud (I'm not at my Mac right now, but as I type this I have a feeling that there is some path in your home folder to iCloud or maybe I've already linked to it.)

[askvictor]

While it does 'just work' (i.e. the best product currently in the space) it's more a factor of how much better it is than its competitors, and how much the price premium is.

[mockindignant]

Better is a relative term, some argue that iCloud is VASTLY superior since you can set it up with your own private key that apple does not have access to.

Dropbox can always view your files without you knowing.

I do agree that as far as usability and cross platform support, dropbox is better. For security though I would say it's middle of the pack at best.