Dropbox on FreeBSD

[Jerry]

On Sun, 23 Feb 2014 02:15:07 -0800, Sergei G stated:

> Does anybody have good instructions for installing Sparkleshare on 
> FreeBSD 10?
> 
> 
> On 2/15/14, 10:01 AM, Matthew Pherigo wrote:
> > +1 for Bittorrent Sync.
> >
> > As I understand it, Dropbox relies on the inotify functionality in the
> > Linux kernel, and there is no equivalent function in the FreeBSD kernel
> > (which is why the linux compatibility layer doesn't have an inotify
> > function either). There are some unofficial solutions to this problem,
> > but as far as I can see, btsync is a great solution.
> >
> > Now, it should be noted that btsync is just dumb peer-to-peer folder
> > syncing. Although it accomplishes a lot of what you would want from
> > dropbox, if you're a regular user of features like the web interface,
> > then you would probably be a lot better off setting up an instance of
> > Sparkleshare on your personal Web server. Sparkleshare is intended to
> > be an open-source dropbox competitor, that has the features that btsync
> > is missing. The disadvantage, of course, is that Sparkleshare requires
> > a Web server, while btsync only needs to be installed on the computers
> > you wish to sync files on.
> >
> > --Matt
> >
> >> On Feb 15, 2014, at 11:08 AM, francesco scaglione
> >> <francesco.scaglione at sfr.fr> wrote:
> >>
> >>> On 15 Feb 2014 à 07:08, Jerry wrote:
> >>> I use Dropbox and Windows SkyDrive, soon to be renamed OneDrive,
> >>> extensively. Unfortunately, there does not appear to be a version
> >>> available for FreeBSD. These are listed on the site:
> >>>
> >>> Ubuntu (.deb)        64-bit        32-bit
> >>> Fedora (.rpm)        64-bit        32-bit
> >>> Debian (.deb)        64-bit        32-bit
> >>> Compile from source
> >>>
> >>> there are a few "Dropbox" ports; however, I am looking for something
> >>> that works the same way across different platforms; ie Windows and
> >>> FreeBSD. Do the Dropbox ports do that? If not, has anyone tried to
> >>> use one of the "Dropbox" distributions on FreeBSD?
> >>>
> >>> Thanks!
> >>>
> >>> -- 
> >>> Jerry
> >> I had the very same problem and I've found a good solution using
> >> BitTorrent Sync across FreeBSD, Linux and Windows. Maybe it's worth to
> >> give a try?

Personally, I find this situation quite disturbing. I find an increasing
number of people and businesses using both "DropBox" and "SkyDrive" now
re-branded "OneDeive" on a daily basis. The fact that 'OneDrive" integrates
seamlessly with modern MS Office products is an added incentive to use it. A
local municipality that I work with keeps a copy of all its backup data on
a DropBox which is synced automatically.

Now, the fact that FreeBSD does not support either of these architectures
natively definitely detracts from its usefulness as an OS in an office or
government environment. I also find it disheartening to power users also who
work in those environments. It is my heart felt belief that the FreeBSD
authors should consider making whatever changes are required to the FreeBSD
architecture to allow the use of cloud services in a manner common and
normal on other more advanced operating systems. While there have been
several suggestions on how to work around this short coming, they are in
effect just Rube Goldberg scenarios. The problem should be remedied at the
source.

-- 
Jerry