Discussion: Alternatives to Dropbox?

Lifehacker has a lengthy post today about Dropbox and its alternatives. Dropbox seems to be the default service that debate teams have used for file sharing but the quality of the alternatives is increasing and Dropbox has had a series of recent mishaps. Have you tried any of the alternatives? Is Dropbox still the best fit for debate teams? Share your thoughts in the comments.

12 thoughts on “Discussion: Alternatives to Dropbox?”

  1. YusufMasud

    I'm glad there are fellow Lifehacker readers in the debate community. As for the alternatives, I've tried Wuala before, but I reverted back to Dropbox just because of the simplicity of the interface. Having the whole team switch to an alternative would be a hassle.

    1. Scottyp4313nr Post author

      yes, dropbox could run on the blood of baby unicorns but until someone else gets as easy an interface it will still be the one

  3. maximiliantiger

    I don't get what the big deal is for this audience. Security? You're sharing *debate cards.* For a business, sure. But for average high school or college students? There's no impact.

    1. Bill Batterman Post author

      The bigger issue for me and for a lot of other users has been Dropbox's many Mac problems. I had only known about SugarSync so I was just wondering if any debaters/debate teams had experimented with some of the other products. I like Dropbox better than SugarSync but I'm going to give some of the others a spin to see if they resolve the Mac issues.

  4. Scottyp4313nr Post author

    Bill-

    there is a fix for the mac issues

    1. Throw away your mac
    2.???
    3. Profit

    1. Antonucci23

      The "metadata" problem made everyone's dropbox explode with notifications if *anyone* in the group had a mac.

      So change "your" to "everyone's" and then you have a plan I'd vote for.

      1. timalderete

        You can turn off the desktop notifications. Goto the Dropbox Icon on your toolbar, right click, goto Preference; General Preferences; uncheck the "Desktop Notifications" box.

      2. RyanCMarcus

        I've never seen this issue with the large number ( > 10 ) Macs connected to my Dropbox.

        I'm curious — what "metadata" is being synced? Spotlight metadata is stored in a sqlite database, not in the file itself. The only metadata that Mac OS X stores is the .DS_store file (which Dropbox shouldn't be syncing) and colored labels for files and folders.

        1. Antonucci23

          Who knows; I don't work for Dropbox.

          All I know is that for a long time, every Mac connected to a dropbox make it explode with notifications and it was annoying as all hell. Now, opening some files with a Mac posts a notification even if you don't change them, which is mildly annoying.

          I imagine that they could have a better conversation with you about the DS_store file and such.

        2. Scottyp4313nr Post author

          More than 10 macs at a time? So dropbox works in a starbucks?

          I'll be here all week, tip your waitresses

  5. Antonucci23

    Yes, you can.

    The problem is that Desktop notifications are useful when they aren't being spammed by Mac metadata syncs.

    Turning it off thus represents a small loss.

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