[_bxg1]

I've mainly stayed because I don't want to support the mega-corporations when there's a smaller ($12bn counts as "smaller" these days...) company doing a fine job. That aside, I appreciate that they've mostly stayed focused on the core task of syncing files between computers, that there's no bias in terms of devices or OSes, and that their client software tends to work just a little bit better than the competition.

[anoncoward111]

Thank you for your quick and honest reply!

I fancy myself as someone who supports "the little guy", and the Dropbox team's story is an example of how "the big guys" totally and completely fell asleep in a pool of their own money while Dropbox built something that people wanted before other bigger players.

I therefore find it ironic that I don't support them with even just a little bit of money per month, when a big portion of the pitch for the job I currently work and the small project is "but we're different because we're smaller and therefore client focused!"

I hope everyone can reflect on who their money supports. But I'll tell you two large corporations I'm very happy to support: Bozzuto, my apartment company, and Bank of America, my bank.

I would never trust a small landlord to take care of me for the right price (I've been burned so many times by private owners). And well, I store my money in a place that is FDIC and regulated... Ok I have a credit union too :)

[NegativeLatency]

Why do you like B of A?

[anoncoward111]

Before they introduced Zelle, it was a free and relatively trustworthy way for me to exchange money with no fee between most of my friends. It just so happened we all had B of A.

In addition to that, their fraud resolution department has always been nice to me and their branches are nearby my house if I'm ever required to go in there. Still, right now, I trust my credit union more. But, my credit union wasn't founded by "two dudes" like Dropbox was, is the analogy I'm trying to make here.

Corporations I trust with my business - BOA, Google, LG, Walmart

Corporations I don't trust with my business - Comcast, Chipotle, McDonalds

"Two Guys" I trust with my business- My local mechanic, my local electrician (it took years of searching and relationship building).

[scarface74]

I can’t see myself paying $10/month for Dropbox when I can get Office365 for the same price with 1tb apiece for up to five users, plus office for 5 computers, and 5 iPads.

[abrookewood]

There are lots of things wrong with OneDrive which is what you will be using. Off the top of my head: no delta sync; no LAN sync. End result was that every single file change will result in your the entire file being uploaded to the web and your ENTIRE team downloading it again ... Can't remember the others, but it was enough for me to continue with DropBox despite the rising cost when recently compared to OneDrive.

[Sohcahtoa82]

We use OneDrive at work and I think it's awful.

My biggest complaint is how slow syncing is some times. I have a desktop and laptop at work and I can save something in my OneDrive folder on my desktop and it'll take over an hour for it to appear on my laptop unless I manually pause syncing and then unpause it to force a refresh from the OneDrive server.

I've never had that with Dropbox. It's been damn near instant every time.

[cbcoutinho]

I can't use onedrive due it's lack of a Linux client. There are thirdparty ones available, but upstream API changes have caused data corruptions so I don't trust it as my main driver anymore.

[_bxg1]

The equivalent Dropbox plan is also 1TB. I personally don't ever use Office so for me that element of it is not a benefit.

[scarface74]

How many large businesses do either use MS Office or Google’s enterprise offerings?

Dropbox will gladly take money from consumers but the money is in the Enterprise and that’s what they are chasing.

[_bxg1]

Right, and that's where they have a competitive disadvantage. They did launch Paper which is pretty neat, and they've done some partnering, but I could understand a business not using them for that reason.

https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/01/dropbox-to-add-native-g-su...

[telchar]

Can I ask why syncing files between computers if a useful thing for you? I'm on the verge of cancelling my Dropbox account since I realized the Dropbox account is not useful as an external drive, but only as a syncing tool. To me that's not worth anything bit I'm curious what use the happy customers have for it.

[ajkjk]

Saving everything into Dropbox is just so incredibly easier than trying to manage and keep track of and not damage an external drive.

[_bxg1]

Storage is cheap enough these days that each of my computers has more HDD space than I need for my whole Dropbox, so I don't have a need for a "true" external drive. I primarily use it as a backup and secondarily use it to sync across machines. Every file of importance lives in my Dropbox directory, so when I'm working on a project or something I don't even have to think about backups. If my apartment building burned down or all my drives simultaneously died, I wouldn't lose any data. And if I ever need to glance at some file away from home I can always do so.

[telchar]

For backups I understand. What I'm curious about is what is your setup that involves multiple computers. Is it one personal computer and one at work? Do you have multiple personal computers for some reason? Just curious about usage patterns that differ from my own.

[_bxg1]

I have a Windows/Linux desktop and a Macbook, both personal. Also and Android phone. If you truly have ample storage you can also use Dropbox as a way of syncing between OSes on the same machine, in a VM or on separate partitions. Duplicates a bunch of data, but you don't have to mess with mounting and differing file systems and everything.

[telchar]

Thanks, I hadn't thought of using Dropbox as a file sync between different OSes on the same machine.