Dropbox实在是太好用了!!! Dropbox is AWESOME !!! Dropbox vs. other

地球上最好的全自动文件云同步兼具救命功能的生产力工具Dropbox, 今天又要再一次感谢你了. 之前已经救过我一命, 见该篇博文, 以前也救过好多次命, 现在还在继续救命中……

So basically i want to thank the best automatic cloud based file synchronization, productivity and life-saving tool — Dropbox, again. It saved my life few times, i mean my data, and it’s continuing saving ……

事情是这样的, 昨天到今天直接覆盖编辑了好一大段MATLAB仿真程序, 改的不成样然后结果不是很对头的时候才想起应该把之前的保留一份, 毕竟那个结果相对好些, 虽然也不完全符合理论预期. 但是面对着几十处的改动, 深深的无力感袭上心头. 这时候, 想起了我大Dropbox的历史版本特性, 狂喜, 点进去一看, 我艹, 到现在有77个版本, 都在, 打开昨天晚上的版本, 复制粘贴保存运行, 啊~~~顿时舒心了, 和昨晚一样的结果. feel so good.

The story is, yesterday i was editing a MATLAB simulation codes, and i just override it instead of copy and paste (backup) then edit. When i saw my not-so-expected results, i want my original codes back. But i have to face several dozens of modifications, oh my, it’s just like a naked girl is waiting but you just can’t getting hard. Completely tragic situation. But (a light bulb coming to me) i remembered that there is a historical revision feature in Dropbox. Clicked it, all 77 versions are right there, including last night version, runs just the same. Oh, Dropbox’s development team just behind my own heart. They know everything we need. Feel so good. Well not completely good because i’m a free user and not contribute to their revenue.

生产力工具不要用中国产的, 而且即使是Google Drive也都不比Dropbox在这方面做得好. 正好就对比下几个同类软件. 都是用过的. 由于众所周知的问题Dropbox在中国访问不大好. 所以你可以想到, 我是从中国的此类软件用起的……说出来都是血泪史…..

Conclusion in a tweet: don’t use a productivity tool from China. And even Google Drive can’t beats Dropbox, i know Sugarsync, but the connection speed in China to Sugarsync just too low to practical use. So i think it’s interesting that we review these similar tools (mostly from China), mostly negative.

软件对比

Review of several file sync tools (we call them net/web drive in China)

Everbox: 这是我用的第一款同步软件, 这一看名字呢就不用想了, 就是仿照Dropbox做的, 但是啊, 我有时候真想说一句, 抄也有抄的好抄的不好的, Everbox明显就是抄的形而没有抄的神, 最明显的就是对自身定位没理解透彻, 和对用户可能发生的动作以及应对分析的不透彻. 比如我结束编辑一个Word文档, 体积比如10MB, 不能一下子上传完, 就关机了, 重启之后(Everbox开机自运行)居然楞给我恢复到编辑前的状态. 当时真是气死了. 后来还不争气的又装上了(我的网络下Everbox速度比较快). 然后又有一天一个重要文档的改动被恢复到以前的状态了. 然后就彻底不用这个软件了. 过了很久之后, 有消息说因为某些问题, 没了. 

Everbox: this is the first one i got. i don’t even need to tell you that you just know this one is a copy of Dropbox. But more important thing is, they just copied the GUI, not the functionality. At the beginning it was fine, but one day i was modified a document and saved it, the connection was too bad, that before uploaded complete, i shut down my laptop. Next day i found the document was synchronized to the version that before i make revision (with totally surprise). I was angry and uninstalled it, but at that time i need it. Next day i re-install it, move on, until one day i trapped by this exactly the same BUG again, made me finally realize that there would be lots of them in front of me if i continued using this under-developed tool. So i uninstalled it and never re-install. Otherwise my head must be kicked by a horse. One day (~ March 2013) i’ve noticed that due to competition of other company and of course the the bug-ish software. Its parent company stop this service.

115同步盘: 另外一个速度还可以的网盘就是115了, 也用过, 但是乱七八糟的功能太多, 分享啊, 社交啊, 之类的, 还是定位理解问题吧. 不运行软件不能进去看到文件夹, 很蠢的设定. 自己不用做生产力工具之后, 因为在家乡的网速还可以, 就在父母家里面电脑上装上了该软件, 用来同步照片什么的, 但是, 有几点很严重的问题, 让我彻底抛弃该软件的问题是网页端不能上传文件! 作为一个同步网盘居然网页端不能上传文件! 我真不知道产品经理是怎么想的, 脑子进水了么, 那些乱七八糟的分享, 社交, 关注真的那么重要么? 会因此带来收入么? 有时间做那些怎么连基本的上传都不做, 那时我电脑已经没有装这个软件了. 但家里的电脑还是这个, 想要跟家人分享下照片, 就想直接在网页端上传得了, 登录一看, 我艹居然没有! 当时就愤怒了. 然后压下火气, 还是装了, 毕竟家里人卸载再装一个软件是比较困难的. 但是装好之后, 居然要先下载完全部的文件(2G左右)才能上传! 我又不能删掉, 删掉了家里电脑也没了. 愤怒中等了两分钟, 看不到希望, 想明白了, 这种工具, 就不要用国产的. 做的太烂. 实在是目不忍视(眼不见心不烦). 后来就远程连接帮家里面装了Dropbox, 一切安好.

115: another tool with not so bad connection speed is 115 sync drive. They don’t do the right thing but hot thing, i.e. SNS style file share. The software, ahhhh…… you can’t browse your own file (in 115’s folder) on your own laptop if the software is not running. I mean, you can’t imagine the stupidness of this thing. When i installed this software on my parents’ computer, i thought maybe the photos sharing problem can solved. But one day i want to put some photos in it so my parents can see the view in Orlando, USA, because i don’t have this tool in my laptop, i went to their web, BUT! i can’t find how can i upload a file with their web page. This is another stupid thing i met. But install and setup a software is a little bit beyond my parents’ computer skill. So i installed on my laptop, once i complete the setup, it began to sync, not bad. BUT! (why “but-thing” always happen) after half a hour, still 0% upload. I finally figured out that it can’t upload before download complete and i have to download 500 photos before i upload 5 photos! This is even far away from my stupidest thought. Why this thing can’t upload and download at the same time? Is the Internet simplex ? NO! After that i started to consider another software to share photos, finally, turns out the best solution is Dropbox, i install Dropbox on my parents’ computer via remote assistance. Everything works just fine since that.

dbank: 类似于Everbox的缺点, 没分析透彻, 改个文件名都要重新上传整个文件Orz. 另外, 网页端还会自动安装软件, 下个别人分享的文件什么的还直接通过浏览器就给你装了软件, 发现之后直接删除, 再也不用了.

dbank (from HUAWEI): similar to Everbox, software develop under not completely clear analysis of user behavior. For example, you change the file name of a video, re-upload needed. Orz. Besides, if you don’t have the software installed, you just want to download a single file that others share, after you accept to execute their browser plugin, it just install the software in your computer and you even don’t know until you see the start menu. After uninstalled, i never use this service.

Google Drive: 重装系统后装Drive后不能直接指定一个文件夹作为drive文件夹, 会新建一个文件夹. 而且把所有的文件都复制了一份, 为了防止文件重复, 删除了一个文件夹, 结果服务器上的也被删除了, 好在还在回收站里面. 给找回来了. 我觉得应该是文件夹迁移功能和文件校验功能做的不够好.

Drive (from Google): everything works as expected, except when i want to re-install it after i re-install Windows 7 (due to SSD crash), turns out that even you choose original Drive directory, it will make a new directory to put all the files. That’s not good, i deleted a duplicate folder, and it deleted the copy in server, and makes i deleted the original folder. Good thing is it’s in the trash. But this directory and transfer function not work so good. Under the expectation of Google.

我觉得正确的做法应该是: 认认真真做好最重要核心的功能–文件同步, 各种使用环境和情况的文件同步, 比如上面说的编辑一个大文档, 保存后上传还没完毕, 关机了, 再开机, 怎么应对? 在比如软件在退出情况下编辑网盘内文档, 再启动网盘软件后, 怎么应对? 再比如断网情况下编辑文档编辑到中间保存的过程中连接上网络(对于大文档的编辑保存时间几十秒都是可能的), 怎么应对? 再比如重装系统或者重新装软件后恢复设置和恢复同步, 怎么应对? 在比如增量同步问题, 频繁修改但每次改动不大的大文档(比如毕业论文)的同步问题? 再比如1G的电影, 仅修改文件名的同步问题? 再比如编辑文档到一半休眠了, 转到另外的电脑上继续编辑, 怎么应对? 再比如word这类软件会自动生成备份或者编辑时候的文件, 怎么应对? 再比如把网盘安装到A电脑的c盘, 还没结束编辑就休眠, 另外一台电脑B更新了另外一个文档, 第二天A才从休眠状态恢复, 怎么应对B更新的另外一个文档? 等等. 

I think the right method to develop this software is: push hard to make the core functionality perfect, in this case, file synchronization under every possible user case. For example, when you were editing a document then save it, before upload complete, you shutdown your computer, what should the software do when you start next time? Or incremental synchronization, how you deal with a frequently modified document such as dissertation?  Or when you put your synchronization directory at c:\ (which is the default partition), you editing a document A, without save, the laptop “sleep” (“Hybrid sleep” from MS), during the sleeping, you upload/modified another file B by using another laptop. Then when your laptop restore (basically just time change, everything else is the same), and of course your synchronization folder restore, what should software do? delete/restore the file B because the software may think the version in your laptop is most recently? So on and so forth. We need to collect and analysis the user case and find a appropriate way to deal with it. Otherwise when user lost their important data, they will get crazy.

Dropbox据我观察只在最后一个问题上出过问题, 其它方面都运行的很好, 特别是增量同步这个特性, 可以说是作为生产力工具的核心特性之一了. 否则Dropbox也不可能推出面向企业的同步方案. 即使是在欧美发达国家网速比较快的情况下, 编辑一个几十MB的文档保存后, 同事要等完全同步之后才能编辑, 由于增量同步做的不好需要同步整个文件而产生的等待, 我想作为企业也是不容易接受的. 一开始有个idea可能很简单, 能抢占先机, 但能真正把这个需求做起来的做好的, 还是要靠后面不断的应对需求并解决问题. 这也是我觉得国产软件有时候很傻的原因之一, 抄就抄吧, 你也抄的有道理一点好吧, 抄也要知其所以然好吧, 产品都是有内在逻辑的, 搞不清这些, 肯定要出问题. 当然在我大中国还有些另外的问题.

Products have inner logic that make them become value added. I will certainly concern about these logic when i develop the products. One of the biggest problem of copycat is, they don’t know and even concern about why the best product acting like that. They just take the orders from their boss: “make a same product”, and they make look at the product from outside, and make it. This is also a tragedy for a R&D team.

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本来已经结束, 且本博本来就不想太多人关注(谁来看你啊喂~), 但为了完整性, 还是放出Dropbox referral 链接, 用这个链接注册你和我都能多0.5 GB的空间. 谢谢.

Although the article is not aim for this, however, for a completed story, here is my Dropbox referral link, both of YOU and me will get extra 0.5 GB in our Dropbox account if you sign up using this link. Thank you.

https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTE1NTI2OTAxOQ?src=global9

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