OMG! Ubuntu: Ubuntu One File & Music Services Axed, Here’s All You Need to Know
Can’t imagine Aq’s too happy about this.
And then there was just Dropbox and OwnCloud (because iCloud and Skydrive don’t support the platform I have at home and at work they are useless to me, other considerations aside)
and about a zillion others. I’m looking into BTSync, currently.
Am a bit sad about this, too.
I did a bit of a Nostrodamus on this. I migrated to Spideroak a few months ago, which I found to have the following benefits :-
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Truely cross platform. (lots of Linux flavours as well as MS, iOS, Android etc ad infinitum)
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Security. Cutting a long story short it seems more secure than just about everything else.
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They strike a nice balance between ease of use and customisability.
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I had a tech issue, and the customer support jumped on the ticket damn fast.
Dear #UbuntuOne users, since @Canonical is shutting down file services http://t.co/A8LSodr4ar Consider: https://t.co/cYwKoVDejd @ubuntu
— SpiderOak (@SpiderOak) April 2, 2014
LOL
Everytime an online service like this shuts down, I see people trying desperately to move on… to another online service that ultimately has the same flaws.
When Google Reader shut down, everyone cried, people signed online petitions and things like that… and now, what? They all moved to Feedly, which has exactly the same problem as Google Reader (closed service “in the cloud”), so which will close one day or another.
Why don’t people (especially tech people) take 5 minutes to think about this, and try to see the alternatives?
I guess the sad answer is that people are just lazy and don’t want to think too much about what they’re doing…
What are “the alternatives” without similar problems? If your answer is “run your own server”, then I think the answer is obvious: that’s difficult. If I buy a car and it causes me endless problems, my next step is to not buy cars from that company again. It is not “build my own car from scratch”.
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I don’t know what you are talking about. I moved to NewsBlur which does not have those problems because a) paid services with the intention it will specifically avoid those problems b) open source as well so if the current operator does decide he wants/needs to shutdown, I could run my own version
FWIW - I take your point, even agree with it to a large extent. As a matter of fact, Spideroak pre-dates Ubuntu One.
I never cared for Ubuntu one unil it put my pictures and documents on my computer after I had to reinstall my OS which is great, I have way to many GB worth of images, and I’ll miss U1…
I think the truth lies in between your answer and mine.
Yes, it’s more difficult to have a little box that contains your own data at home than to just give away all your data to a company in the cloud. But no, it’s not as difficult as building a car from scratch.
Many NAS come with a pretty Web interface and packages to have your own Dropbox at home. (for instance, I’m very happy with my Synology because it provides a Dropbox-like software with clients for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and probably iPhone).
Actually, I believe the only remaining problem is not about the server itself, but about configuring your Internet box to allow outside access to it (so you can sync data with it when you’re on the go, or stream music when you’re outside).
The port forwarding problem can also be solved by uPnP, if a decent security model can be developed for it. I imagine somewhere there’s an “ownCloud in a box” that you can just flash to a Raspberry Pi or install on a server.
Of course, there’s always the people who pretty much only use their phones and game consoles and think you’re a hacker whenever you open a terminal window.
Good article with alternatives to Ubuntu One: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/04/three-alternatives-ubuntu-one
I think it is. I really do. It’s not just a question of “buy a NAS and plug it into your internet router”. As you note, there’s then “how do I allow access to it from outside?”, and “where do I get a mobile app that can access that data?” and “what if my ISP gives me a different IP and so breaks my laboriously-set-up mobile app which I told the IP to?” All these things are hard, at least partially because anyone ordinary doesn’t even know that these questions need to be asked. The way to solve them for someone like my dad to understand is to have the little box automatically configure itself via a REST API in the cloud – something like the Spark Core, as an example. At which point, if you’re doing this because you hate the cloud, you’ll hate this too.
I’m using Copy, it’s awesome.
OK, I’m gonna take my NAS as an example.
I have a Synogoloy NAS. It comes with:
- an automatic tool that connects you from the outside directly to the NAS, using a https://whateveryouwant.quickconnect.to/ address
- an awesome Web interface
- a Dropbox-like server (Cloudstation) directly on the NAS that you can configure through the awesome Web interface I mention above
- Linux, Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android client apps to synchronize your files to the Cloudstation
Now, the only point I don’t like is the first one, because you have to sign up on Synology website to use it. But guess what? You don’t have to use it, it’s just a way to ease the process. You can still rely on dynDNS or use a fix IP to connect to your NAS from the outside.
I’ve been pretty impressed by BTSync, which kind of solves the configuration problem: you install it on one computer, it gives you a string to paste on another computer you would like to sync, and… done. I’ve tried with a friend living in Tokyo, and we could start sharing things almost instantly. I hope this kind of painless configuration can be reached someday for open source technologies…
I hadn’t used U1 much. Google Drive gives more space for free and I’m gonna use them anyway with Youtube, G+ etc.
With cloud stuff I only like to use it as a “just in case” backup and to have the convenience of accessing files from anywhere.
BTSync is good for stuff I want to sync on my home machines, like all my phone pics auto syncing to my HTPC.
Two things. The first is that your router or your NAS also has to support dyndns, or you have to have a machine internally which can run the dyndns client and is running all the time. Both of which are not guaranteed. Also, if you’re actually using dyndns.org, you either have to pay for the service, or click an email link every thirty days to keep your account alive.
Secondly, given the very recent news about the heartbleed exploit in OpenSSL, I bet that Dropbox have already fixed this problem. I hope your NAS vendor has shipped you new firmware with as much speed and that you have the technical abilities to install that firmware. Most people don’t.
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blimey! it’s gone entirely, has it? I use no-ip these days so I hadn’t noticed. 