Dropbox alternatives

[kilele]

Dropbox has dropped XP support and it will be discontinuing the ability to render HTML content in-browser via shared links or Public Folder.

Do you know some alternative which supports xp and works the same as dropbox, that is, drop files on your public folder, direct links following the same path as your folder (no encryption nor redirecting to webpages), html5 files Rendering on browsers..

[wraith808]

I don't know any that do your last requirement.  Perhaps there's something open source that would work on XP.  You might check alternativeto, i.e. http://alternativeto...et/software/dropbox/

[kilele]

Well I hope someone can share their experience 
The html rendering is not the most important feature to me but that the desktop program can generate direct links to your files with urls having the same path as on your harddrive. My guess is that most of them generate encrypted links and redirect to pages.

Personally, I can recommend from that alternativeto's list yandex because it works fine on the ipad, but it doesn't meet the direct links feature.

[Shades]

If you mainly use dropbox as a way to share files between devices, than you could consider setting up your own "cloud" (NextCloud is open source and quite easy to setup yourself (in combination with XAMPP or similar tool.)). Besides an online interface, it comes with clients for iP(ad/hone), Android, PC, Mac and Linux.

But if you mainly use dropbox as a way to store data off-site, then hosting your own "cloud" isn't such a stellar idea. Setting up your own "cloud" is initially a headache and you remain responsible for maintenance/upkeep, it also gives you much more control to share data between family and friends, if you so desire.

First, make sure that if you setup your "cloud", that your ISP doesn't object against such things. Or that you don't exceed the limits of your metered internet plan, if you were tricked into getting such a type of internet connection.

[kilele]

I share a spreadseet with direct links made with dropbox. Maybe I should try some linux distro which works well with dropbox. Any suggestion? Small, easy to install for a dual boot on windows, dropbox compatible..

[kilele]

I don't know if one way to stick to winxp and keep using dropbox (discontinued) could be through virtualbox running dropbox for linux.

[IainB]

Dropbox has dropped XP support and it will be discontinuing the ability to render HTML content in-browser via shared links or Public Folder.
Do you know some alternative which supports xp and works the same as dropbox, that is, drop files on your public folder, direct links following the same path as your folder (no encryption nor redirecting to webpages), html5 files Rendering on browsers..
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-kilele (September 07, 2016, 07:16 AM)

Where you say: "Dropbox has dropped XP support and it will be discontinuing the ability to render HTML content in-browser via shared links or Public Folder.", are the two things necessarily combined or separate, or did Dropbox just happen to do the two things at the same time?
The timing seems curious anyway. The reason I say that is that Google Drive also just recently killed off the ability to render HTML content in-browser via shared links - which put me out, because I used to use Google Drive to host a few static webpages of information on different topics. It was a very handy facility. There seemed to be no real reason given by Google for killing this off. I wondered whether Dropbox had stated a reason.

[kilele]

@IainB
Malware abuse if we are to believe what they say here: https://www.dropboxf...ring-of-HTML-content

[IainB]

@kilele: Thanks, I looked at the discussion thread at that link and read what I guess you were referring to, but it all seems to be hearsay and not from the horse's mouth (Dropbox), so i would tend to discount its validity on that basis alone.

There was also a suggestion in that discussion thread that people departing because of this action were "putting the final nails in" to Dropbox's coffin. I am not up-to-date, so have no idea what that was about. Have you any idea?
I shall meanwhile try and find out what rumours there are about Dropbox.

[kilele]

There was also a suggestion in that discussion thread that people departing because of this action were "putting the final nails in" to Dropbox's coffin. I am not up-to-date, so have no idea what that was about. Have you any idea?
I shall meanwhile try and find out what rumours there are about Dropbox.

-IainB (September 10, 2016, 07:27 PM)

I think that was just a funny comment from a grumpy xp user
They must have stopped xp support to reduce development costs and avoid security issues.