Discussion
Your files, Your cloud,Your rules.
noja: Why not just use an FTP server?
aitchnyu: What happens if the server disappears permanently and only the bucket is up?
pluc: I'd love a local offline alternative, maybe I'll get AI to build it for me
dwedge: Not trying to be snarky but what is offline dropbox more than a directory?
atrus: Syncthing? I'm taking 'offline' to mean 'not requiring the internet', which means you can have plenty of computers!
Eikon: See also: https://github.com/Barre/ZeroFSDoesn’t require an external database (just a s3 bucket) and is a single binary. A webui is shipping in the next few days.
ledauphin: this doesn't seem like it allows multiple writers?
HardwareLust: Just don't spin up your machines in Bahrain or the UAE...
dewey: The selling point of Dropbox/Google Drive isn't the storage itself, but that there's app for mobile and desktop operating systems which deeply integrates it in the OS so it's just like a local folder that's magically synced.So it's a cool project, but not really what I'd say is a Dropbox replacement.
whalesalad: Yep. Open source Dropbox is really Nextcloud - https://nextcloud.com
kardianos: Another option is https://github.com/drakkan/sftpgoThis is in Go, exposes both webdav and SFTP servers, with user and admin web interfaces. You can configure remotes, then compose user space from various locations for each user, some could be local, others remote.
jrochkind1: what am i missing?
bovermyer: Iran made those AWS data centers... unhappy.The comment is disingenuous, though, since Locker doesn't need AWS S3 to function.
bovermyer: Very cool idea, but without background file syncing from/to my local machine, it can't replace my cloud storage provider.
kristianc: We've officially come full circlehttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
ryangittins: Hah, wow. A post with an ID under 10k. Meanwhile this one is over 47M.I didn't realize I've been reading HN nearly its whole existence. For all my complaining about what's happened to the internet since those days, HN has managed to stay high quality without compromising.
npodbielski: I bought 35$/mo 16TB server from OVH. I am running 2 replicas of Garage, one on this server. I am using this for backup for now but probably I will also move my Nextcloud files there and websites. This is fine for now and less pricey than any S3 provider I was able to find.
chirau: Honest question, what do you need/use 16TB for? 4K video?
throwaway5465: We can just all use rsync, no need for an app.
voidUpdate: "Stop paying for Dropbox/Google Drive, pay for an S3 bucket instead"
ks2048: I pay Dropbox $120 per year for 2TB. No transfer fees, solid Apps, macOS integration, free APIs.How much on S3? A LOT more.
ajsnigrutin: https://syncthing.net/ <- like this :)Free, opensource, works on computers and phones, can in most cases puncture nat, supports local discovery (lan, multicast).No googles, no dropboxes, no clouds, no AI training, no "my kid likes the wrong video on youtube, now our whole family lost access to every google account we had, so we lost everything, including family photos", just sync!(not affiliated, just really love the software)
gargan: May I recommend the excellent https://s3drive.app/ which is compatible with S3 and also providers like Proton Drive
vitalscope: That is a bit like saying “Don’t use a medical analysis app, just interpret your lab results yourself.”Sure, ChatGPT can help, but to use it reliably, you still need enough medical knowledge to ask good questions and evaluate the answers.
redat00: funny enough the guy behind the project also has an app like that https://github.com/zmeyer44/OpenVitals(and regarding contributors for all of his projects, it's mostly vibe-coded)
Zm44: Think of OpenVitals more as "Don't pay $300/yr for a chatGPT wrapper medical app, just use this with your existing test results for free"
pprotas: Samba share?Old technology still works, even if it is old!
axelthegerman: Works so great on new devices like smartphones. Except not.And so easy to set up on a home computer. Except it's not always on and doesn't come with backups.I'm not saying S3 is where it's at but might need a bit more than just Samba. Or maybe you don't but people who need Dropbox do.
ovaistariq: The critical part of Dropbox is not just the storage layer but a combination of their client and server. Even small things like how do you handle conflicting writes to the same file from multiple threads, matter a great deal for data consistency and durability.
dangus: To me, integration with the Apple files app on iOS is critical for any Dropbox replacement (among other things).
hvb2: Just saying, but this is not really fair. It's not like you use that 2TB. So you shouldn't compare it to a 2TB bucket. Most of these plans have limits to prevent abuse but they're well beyond the 'I need to care' level.Maybe you use 1TB, maybe just 10GB. As a user on this site I expect you know that a 10GB plan and a 1TB plan won't be that much different.
dangus: A lot of the backend bucket providers can handle file versioning.I too would like the answer to this concern because the features page doesn’t mention it. I want to be able to handle file version history.I’m currently using Filen which I find very reasonable and, critically, it has a Linux client. But I wish it was faster and I wish the local file explorer integration was more like Dropbox where it is seamless to the OS rather than the current setup where you mount a network share.
freedomben: at the risk of a comment that doesn't age well, for most people on HN I would definitely look into just using rclone. I also has a GUI for people who want that. rclone is mind-blowingly good. You can set up client-side encryption (so object storage never sees the data or even the filename) to be seamless. I'm a huge fan
filleokus: Neat! Pricing wise it might not always make sense though to use the commercial blob storages, especially for solo usage.1 TB is roughly 20-30 USD per month at AWS/GCP only in storage, plus traffic and operations. R2 is slightly cheaper and includes traffic.Compared to e.g a Google AI plan where you get 5 TB storage for the same price (25 USD/month) + Gemini Pro thrown in.
nhumrich: Backblaze is a lot more affordable
giancarlostoro: To be fair, I can't remember the last time I needed Dropbox or Google Drive, but I do use iCloud, since it comes with plenty of storage for my family plan. I don't send anyone files like back in the day where people would send me a Dropbox link and I'd send them one back.
pprotas: iOS has native support for SMB in the Files appTurning on SMB is usually just a click of a button, even macOS supports itAny user technical enough to be able to set up an S3 bucket, Syncthing, Nextcloud or this "Locker" tool from OP can also set up an SMB shareI was responding to the above thread, where sharing files on an offline network is being discussed. Backups were not mentioned as a requirement.
noisy_boy: The only issue I have, with this amazing piece of software that I heavily use across multiple devices, is management of sync failures and exclusions via the UI. I have been using it for long enough to know the tips and tricks but it would be great for the web UI to allow easy management of conflict issues and the ability to mark files/folders are exclusions in a friendly manner.
cjonas: Why does getting started have me sign up for an account vs take me to the docs to self host?
twarge: Yes, notably, the File Provider extension is where the value is for me. Are there any open source options other than Seafile's SeaDrive?
jon9544hn: NextCloud has a version with FP support
rkagerer: Why would I want to replace my reliance on them with reliance on Amazon or another cloud provider?I'd rather control the whole stack, even if it means deploying my own hardware to one or more redundant, off-site locations.Edit: Are there robust, open source, self-hosted, S3-compliant engines out there reliable and performant enough to be the backend for this?
evandrofisico: take a look at https://garagehq.deuxfleurs.fr/
TeMPOraL: > but that there's app for mobile and desktop operating systems which deeply integrates it in the OS so it's just like a local folder that's magically syncedWhich mobile OS would that be?The big reason I stopped being excited about cloud storage is that on mobile, from what I can tell, none of the major providers care about "folder that syncs" experience. You only get an app that lets you view remote storage. The only proper "folder that syncs" I had working on my phone so far was provided via Syncthing, but maintaining that turned out to be more effort than my tiny attention span can afford these days.
noveltyaccount: Yes, and they have features like default soft delete with hard delete after x days that makes it a very compelling backup choice (protect against malware and mistakes). I'm a satisfied customer.
layer8: On iOS, Dropbox integrates with the Files app. Since that was added a couple of years ago, I virtually never have to open the Dropbox app itself.
charles_f: Stop paying for banks, AI built this cardboard box that you can store in your toolshed instead!
Tepix: On the other hand when a Dropbox user shares a file with you these days, the nudges have so gotten out of hand that it's a pain to use.
layer8: That’s only an issue if you use Dropbox for sharing with non-Dropbox users, rather than for syncing files across devices and accounts, and having an extra versioned copy in the cloud.
dewey: I'm using iOS and macOS. On macOS I have the folder that syncs experience (I'm using Synology Drive, but Dropbox works the same way), on iOS I have the "browse remote files" experience but I can pin files I always want to keep available which is what I want.
Forgeties79: My only major complaint with gdrive on Mac (besides Apple and Google but I have to deal with them for work) is that you can’t set the storage folder to an external location like with windows. I don’t want to be constantly loading/unloading media on my internal storage, but I don’t have a choice without janky work arounds.
vachina: There’s local file system as an option for storage provider.But then you still need a bazillion dependencies and a db just to manage files already on your filesystem.
TheJoeMan: A family member has uploaded a backup of all of the family photos to Amazon Glacial Storage, on the order of a few hundred GB, and gleefully sends me screenshots of the <$1/mo charges.
giarc: I think a big reason is you are not notified when someone replies to your comment. It reduces heated back and forth arguments.
Tade0: Also submissions with more comments than upvotes are looked into, if not outright automatically flagged.
charles_f: I used to be excited by these kind of tools, I love to self-host stuff. When I clicked on the link, I had this hesitation, suspecting "maybe it's LLM generated". And sure enough, coming back to HN, description says it is.File sync can't be that hard! Enters the first 3 way conflict and everything explodes.Dont misunderstand me, this is a cool idea. But if your rotation time between ideating a project and pushing it to HN is a week, you don't understand the problem space. You didn't go through the pain of realizing its complexity. You didn't test things properly with your own data, lost a bunch of it and fixed the issues, or realized it was a bad idea and abandoned it. I have no guarantee you'll still be there in a month to patch any vulnerabilities.Not that any open-source project had these kind of guarantees until now, but the effort invested in them to get to that point was at least a secondary indicator about who built it, their dedication, and their understanding of the space.
