I joined the dark side...

[In-A-Gadda-Levitre]

You do know what causes a crash, right? Null read/writes, heap corruption? Crashes are GOOD things - they prevent poorly written software from pwning your machine through a write access violation.

 

When people see crashes they immediately blame the operating system. I have no idea why - I can write code in 5 seconds that will crash on ANY o/s:

 

SomeType *foo = null;

 

if (foo -> bar) /* crash! */

...

 

Crashes are almost ALWAYS the result of drivers that were written on the cheap or bugs that lie in the software, not the operating system.

yeah, but...

The reason that most Macs are more stable and less prone to crashes is because there's 1 hardware manufacturer who also makes the OS, most of the peripherals, and the apps. There's little or no driver conflicts or unlimited combinations of hardware and software and versions, which make PCs cheaper and more flexible, but also more unstable.

[Chilly]

For everyone that is talking about backups, here's a great way to securely backup your data, off-site, at a rate of $2/mo for the first five gigs, and .15c/gig/month after that:

 

https://www.jungledisk.com/personal/

 

If you sign up, make sure to choose Rackspace Cloud Files as the backend. If you choose Amazon, you'll have to pay bandwidth fees too. You don't with Cloud Files!

[The Dean]

For everyone that is talking about backups, here's a great way to securely backup your data, off-site, at a rate of $2/mo for the first five gigs, and .15c/gig/month after that:

 

https://www.jungledisk.com/personal/

 

If you sign up, make sure to choose Rackspace Cloud Files as the backend. If you choose Amazon, you'll have to pay bandwidth fees too. You don't with Cloud Files!

 

 

 

Hey, thanks. I love to have another product to offer clients. I may even check this out myself. I'm not thrilled with Mozy, anymore. Don't hate it, mind you, but think it could/should be better.

 

What's your take on the Desktop Edition?

[Chilly]

Hey, thanks. I love to have another product to offer clients. I may even check this out myself. I'm not thrilled with Mozy, anymore. Don't hate it, mind you, but think it could/should be better.

 

What's your take on the Desktop Edition?

 

It's pretty cool. You can setup a network drive that acts as a local hard drive, but stores the files in the cloud. It's great for stuff like word docs, ppts, and excel files. However, it's not great for really huge files that tend to change every 5 seconds (I'm looking at you, Quickbooks). For most things, though, it's a pretty cool way to store everything in the cloud instead of your own hard drive. There's also a web-based interface for accessing your files, and an iPhone app. It has versioning and all of the usual features as well.

 

If you setup a network drive, one thing you'll want to do is disable anti-virus scanning of the network drive if you set it up, so it's not constantly downloading files to scan.

 

Sync folders works well if you want to keep files in sync between two machines. When it detects a change, it pushes the file to the cloud. Then, the service in the cloud notifies all clients to go grab the new copy the next time they see them online (or instantly if they are online).

 

It's also not bad for basic collaboration features, although for that, you'll want to look at the workgroup edition (https://www.jungledisk.com/business/). It has the same features as the desktop edition, but allows more than one user to be setup.

 

Let's say you have a small company that wants to share word document templates. It's perfect for something like that. Permissions are setup on a network-drive basis (not a folder or file level).

 

What it's not good at, though, is being a full-fledged file collaboration tool, if there's the potential for a bunch of people to be using a file at once. It's not a real file system, so there's no file locking currently. If two people are editing a file, last person wins (although versioning can help prevent some of that data loss). However, for small businesses or groups that only have a few people working on files, it can be a cheap and useful collaboration tool. It's just not good for large user bases (you'd want something like Sharepoint for that).

 

The server edition is pretty good too for backing up servers. The difference with the server edition is the licensing - it's $5/server, and you can have as many different user accounts as you want remotely managing that server's backups.

 

Full Disclosure: This is a Rackspace Email & Apps product, and I work for Rackspace Email & Apps. However, I think it's a solid product, and I use it myself.

[Fezmid]

I'm not thrilled with Mozy, anymore. Don't hate it, mind you, but think it could/should be better.

Why don't you like Mozy anymore? I haven't seen any changes with it for the couple of years I've had it, and it does what it's supposed to (much cheaper than that crappy RackSpace solution . Errr, wait... I own stock in that company. Nevermind - buy the Rackspace solution, PLEASE!!! ).

[The Dean]

Why don't you like Mozy anymore? I haven't seen any changes with it for the couple of years I've had it, and it does what it's supposed to (much cheaper than that crappy RackSpace solution . Errr, wait... I own stock in that company. Nevermind - buy the Rackspace solution, PLEASE!!! ).

 

 

I have had a couple of problems with restoring files Mozy showed were backed up, but then they didn't have the right version backed up after all. Support is iffy and it sometimes takes a few calls up the chain to get things resolved.

 

No disasters yet, but I am losing a bit of confidence in them.

[Chilly]

I have had a couple of problems with restoring files Mozy showed were backed up, but then they didn't have the right version backed up after all. Support is iffy and it sometimes takes a few calls up the chain to get things resolved.

 

No disasters yet, but I am losing a bit of confidence in them.

 

If you went with the Rackspace solution, you could just pm me and I'd go bop Travis on the head.

[John Adams]

For everyone that is talking about backups, here's a great way to securely backup your data, off-site, at a rate of $2/mo for the first five gigs, and .15c/gig/month after that:

 

https://www.jungledisk.com/personal/

 

If you sign up, make sure to choose Rackspace Cloud Files as the backend. If you choose Amazon, you'll have to pay bandwidth fees too. You don't with Cloud Files!

 

I tried Mozy for a bit but it was so damn slow that I dumped it. Now I have two externals.They alternate between being the one hooked to the computer and the one I store out of my house.

 

I was also VERY VERY leery of backing up files to locations and people I don't know.

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

As a linux guy, you should be ashamed and excommunicated. You've gone from the OS that people who know computers use to the OS for the truly clueless with deep pockets.

 

Shame. Shame, I say, SHAME!

[Chilly]

I tried Mozy for a bit but it was so damn slow that I dumped it. Now I have two externals.They alternate between being the one hooked to the computer and the one I store out of my house.

 

I was also VERY VERY leery of backing up files to locations and people I don't know.

 

I hear you about being leery. The good part about Jungle Disk is you can choose to encrypt your files with AES 256-bit encryption, with a key that only you know. If you have to re-install the program, you'll have to put that key in again. If you lose it, well, you're screwed - the JD folks have no record of the key at all, and can't help you recover your files.

[Chilly]

As a linux guy, you should be ashamed and excommunicated. You've gone from the OS that people who know computers use to the OS for the truly clueless with deep pockets.

 

Shame. Shame, I say, SHAME!

 

lol I know.

[John Adams]

As a linux guy, you should be ashamed and excommunicated. You've gone from the OS that people who know computers use to the OS for the truly clueless with deep pockets.

 

Shame. Shame, I say, SHAME!

 

I was a Linux early guy just out of curiosity. I built an early machine and installed Red Hat on it. I didn't mind it but 10+ years later, what I use computers for is writing in word processors, photos, music, and cloud stuff. I don't need Linux. I just want a machine that works. So I own a Mac.

[Fezmid]

I hear you about being leery. The good part about Jungle Disk is you can choose to encrypt your files with AES 256-bit encryption, with a key that only you know. If you have to re-install the program, you'll have to put that key in again. If you lose it, well, you're screwed - the JD folks have no record of the key at all, and can't help you recover your files.

 

Mozy does that too.

 

And the original backup does take awhile - but after that it's fast.

 

Only done a few spot tests on restores and they worked; the only time I'll really need it is if my house burns down or someone breaks in and steals everything since I backup to a server in the house every day, but for $50/year, it's worth it, IMHO.

[The Dean]

I was a Linux early guy just out of curiosity. I built an early machine and installed Red Hat on it. I didn't mind it but 10+ years later, what I use computers for is writing in word processors, photos, music, and cloud stuff. I don't need Linux. I just want a machine that works. So I own a Mac.

 

 

Um...why couldn't you do word processing, photos, music and cloud stuff in Linux? Doesn't it "just work" and for far less $ in hardware (and software)?

 

Hell a properly set up Windows OS "just works" and does all that too for about 50% of the cost of a Mac, in my experience. But it takes some time, initially, to set it up properly.

[Fingon]

You went from Linux to a Mac? Did you also have a lobotomy recently?

[John Adams]

Um...why couldn't you do word processing, photos, music and cloud stuff in Linux? Doesn't it "just work" and for far less $ in hardware (and software)?

 

Hell a properly set up Windows OS "just works" and does all that too for about 50% of the cost of a Mac, in my experience. But it takes some time, initially, to set it up properly.

 

My point is exactly that everything I do on the computer, I can do on any OS. Money played no factor. But who needs to be messing around with code when they don't have to? Stated another way, some people like cars they can wrench; some people like cars they never have to wrench. In the computer world, I chose the latter. I proved I could run Linux. Linux was "meh" to me. I moved on.

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

My point is exactly that everything I do on the computer, I can do on any OS. Money played no factor. But who needs to be messing around with code when they don't have to? Stated another way, some people like cars they can wrench; some people like cars they never have to wrench. In the computer world, I chose the latter. I proved I could run Linux. Linux was "meh" to me. I moved on.

 

One word: Free.

 

Hard to beat free, stable and robust.

[Chilly]

Um...why couldn't you do word processing, photos, music and cloud stuff in Linux? Doesn't it "just work" and for far less $ in hardware (and software)?

 

OpenOffice.org just doesn't work well with MS Office spreadsheets & powerpoint files. It's really the only reason why I'm switching.

[Rubes]

It's pretty cool. You can setup a network drive that acts as a local hard drive, but stores the files in the cloud. It's great for stuff like word docs, ppts, and excel files. However, it's not great for really huge files that tend to change every 5 seconds (I'm looking at you, Quickbooks). For most things, though, it's a pretty cool way to store everything in the cloud instead of your own hard drive. There's also a web-based interface for accessing your files, and an iPhone app. It has versioning and all of the usual features as well.

 

If you setup a network drive, one thing you'll want to do is disable anti-virus scanning of the network drive if you set it up, so it's not constantly downloading files to scan.

 

Sync folders works well if you want to keep files in sync between two machines. When it detects a change, it pushes the file to the cloud. Then, the service in the cloud notifies all clients to go grab the new copy the next time they see them online (or instantly if they are online).

 

It's also not bad for basic collaboration features, although for that, you'll want to look at the workgroup edition (https://www.jungledisk.com/business/). It has the same features as the desktop edition, but allows more than one user to be setup.

 

Let's say you have a small company that wants to share word document templates. It's perfect for something like that. Permissions are setup on a network-drive basis (not a folder or file level).

 

What it's not good at, though, is being a full-fledged file collaboration tool, if there's the potential for a bunch of people to be using a file at once. It's not a real file system, so there's no file locking currently. If two people are editing a file, last person wins (although versioning can help prevent some of that data loss). However, for small businesses or groups that only have a few people working on files, it can be a cheap and useful collaboration tool. It's just not good for large user bases (you'd want something like Sharepoint for that).

 

The server edition is pretty good too for backing up servers. The difference with the server edition is the licensing - it's $5/server, and you can have as many different user accounts as you want remotely managing that server's backups.

 

Full Disclosure: This is a Rackspace Email & Apps product, and I work for Rackspace Email & Apps. However, I think it's a solid product, and I use it myself.

 

This sounds a lot like Dropbox, which works great for me. They give you 2GB free (totally free, no monthly charges for anything), but it's only 2GB. The thing I don't like is that the only upgrade option from there is up to 50GB, which is $100/year.

[John Adams]

OpenOffice.org just doesn't work well with MS Office spreadsheets & powerpoint files. It's really the only reason why I'm switching.

 

See Bluefire's post.

 

And my time isn't free. OSX requires next to zero setup and less maintenance. IF I jumped back to Linux, I'd have to learn and setup 7-8 programs that I've already got workign the way I like...and go through the entire Linux install, which is a PIA. Plus get code-intimate, which is completely unnecessary.