Thursday, January 22, 2015

Dropbox Pulls a TurboTax

So Dropbox ended support for PowerPC. That happened. Going forward, their client will require Snow Leopard, and not only that, but the old clients will stop functioning so you'll only be able to access your data through their web interface. The official cutoff date is May 18, but to try mitigate this and at least get Dropbox to allow PowerPC users to continue using their old clients, Martin Kukač from viva PowerPC has posted an open letter urging just that. You can read the whole thing here:

http://vivapowerpc.blogspot.cz/2015/01/an-open-letter-to-dropbox-team.html

Also, to add your voice and show Dropbox there's still a demand from PowerPC users, you can go to their forums and post to this somewhat long thread, or even start your own.

As for Dropbox alternatives, I hear second-hand that SugarSync still works with their old Tiger client (direct download). Also, you can try Unison, which I wrote about awhile back. If you're syncing several PCs/devices with Dropbox and only one PowerPC Mac, perhaps you can sync your Dropbox folder with Unison. It's not totally seamless, but it may be workable. If you want to share files with a group of collaborators, you can look into Box.com. They support WebDAV as does Cyberduck, so uploading or downloading the latest file versions with Cyberduck as your client is simple and quick. And if you're accustomed to using Dropbox to transfer individual files to and from your iOS devices, DropCopy can do that for you, too (Tiger and Leopard users, download the Older Version).

As for me, I don't sync on the cloud. I use Unison to sync over my home network. I have to take my Luddite nomenclature seriously.

UPDATE: The editors at LowEndMac have put up a petition at Change.org: Continue to support Dropbox on Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5.

9 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Noooooooo….. :/ Bad.
    I'm using it a lot on my MiniG4 server. have to find something else… Maybe local sync to a IntelMac Dropbox, but then needs to have the Intel always on…

    (Sorry for the previous post, deleted by mistake)

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  3. I tired setting up dropbox on my powerbook running wheezy, but that was a no go. Google drive right meets my needs .

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  4. Hi,
    while checking for a Dropbox replacement for PPC, was investigating WebDAV sharing and came across a client for Mac OS starting from 8.1. Works very well. started WebDAV sharing on my MiniG4, and was able to connect from a Powerbook 1400c running 8.6.
    Now , looking for a automatic WebDAVsync tool that would work as easily that Dropbox, found this :
    http://cmissync.com
    Looks very good… but only for intel :/ Back to square one.
    It's based a Sparkleshare…
    Anyway still looking.

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    1. And btw the classic WebDAV client is Goliath :
      http://www.webdav.org/goliath/#download
      ;p

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  5. I'm one of the Editors on Low End Mac (several columns - mostly Apple, Tech and Gaming). I worked closely with Editor in Chief, Dan Knight and we posted a petition about PowerPC DropBox on Change.org. Feel free to join us in this cause by signing it. Even if it falls on deaf ears, at least all of us who made the effort gave it a shot. Thanks and feel free to visit us for more info.

    https://www.change.org/p/dropbox-continue-to-support-dropbox-on-mac-os-x-10-4-and-10-5?just_created=true

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    1. Thanks. I put the link in the post's body.

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  6. IDrive 2.0 still works on Mac OS X 10.5 PPC and it provides 5 GB for free!

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  7. The best solution for me was to install on my NAS Synology 411j, Cloud Sync application. This app syncs your Dropbox with Synology, and any change made on the Synology is updated automatically on the Dropbox cloud! You just have to drag and drop the NAS dropbox folder from the Finder in your mac Settings/Account/Login Elements so is mounted directly when you boot the MacOS. The advantage of this and that the mac does not consume resources, all the work it does the Synology NAS. This solution is perfect for me, and not feel the lack of Dropbox on my PowerPC!

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