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by thimabi 2783 days ago
> Much as I try and avoid using Google, I stick with them for the free email and unlimited photo storage.

I'm actually quite fearful of the day when Google will end its generous offer... We often see cloud providers struggling to cope with “unlimited” free plans, perhaps we should take all of them with a grain of salt and rely on local backups precisely to avoid the quasi-extortion that comes when the “unlimited cloud” mantra goes downhill.
2 comments
chiefalchemist 2783 days ago
AFAIK -

1)Gmail is free but does have a storage limit.

2) You can have an unlimited # of photos but not at full/original resolution. If you want full/orig you have to pay.

p.s. "...perhaps we should take all of them with a grain of salt..." Do you mean you haven't been doing this already? :)

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thimabi 2783 days ago
Indeed, Gmail does have a limit, but Google Photos still lets you upload “unlimited” photos on that lower quality plan — which is more than enough for a vast majority of users.

I've began noticing the issues of large-scale cloud storage with the OneDrive fiasco, so I learned my lessons the hard way over there. But unfortunately too many people remain invested in such ecosystems and have no idea of the risks involved...

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tomjen3 2783 days ago
They downsample the images, which is why I don't use it. Gmail is large, but not unlimited.

Besides the gigabyte price of a harddrive is about 0.02[0], so if google makes a dollar more in advertising it can afford to store quite a bit...

[0] https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-cost-per-gigabyte/

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petepete 2782 days ago
I use Google for my 'main' feed of photos just because Photos is an excellent product and I don't mind if they are downsampled for sharing or posting online.

I also keep all of all of my processed RAW files on Amazon Prime Photos. I never log into the app though, it's simply just my offsite backup. My NAS automatically syncs to Amazon Photos weekly.

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