Dropbox, the online service that has been in place since 2007 to synchronize data across multiple machines, has recently been ridiculing a lot of Linux users. In August 2018, the users were informed via Dropbox forum that from November 2018 the synchronization of Dropbox on Linux machines will only work with the file system Ext4. This was true only for unencrypted systems. The somewhat flimsy reasoning at the time was that Dropbox needed a file system that supported Extended File Attributes (XATTR). Threadbare because of almost all file systems under Linux XATTRs support, if they are enabled in the kernel configuration.
If you follow the beta builds in the forum of the service, you will find the one week ago there set client called Beta Build 77.3.127, which announces, among other things, the support of ZFS, eCryptFS, XFS and Btrfs. The support for eCryptFS will be particularly pleasing to Dropbox customers on Ubuntu because Ubuntu encrypts the home directory with it at the request of the user. Whether it can be recovered with this measure jumped users must show. Why you first block almost all file systems and then release some again, remains a mystery. Dropbox also recently duped users who use Dropbox for free by limiting the number of syncing devices to three.
This move appears to be part of Dropbox’s ongoing transformation to bring more paid customers to the service in the face of fierce competition. For example, the previously dumb client will soon be upgraded to an app that will allow, among other things, collaborative work on documents, communication via snap and video conferencing under one interface. Some perplexed users had already inadvertently been given a foretaste of the new app when it was automatically installed on them, later removed by Dropbox.
Source: https://www.pro-linux.de/news/1/27276/dropbox-f%C3%83%C2%BCr-linux-man%C3%83%C2%B6vriert-hin-und-her.html
Submitted by: Arnfried Walbrecht
Comments are closed.