Thoughts on Ubuntu One
I’ve spent the last few weeks testing Ubuntu One, Canonical’s file-storing and sharing service. Below is an outline of my experience, and thoughts on the future of the application.
Ubuntu One, which will be installed by default in Ubuntu 9.10, allows users to sync files between different Ubuntu computers. The service runs in the background, and can be accessed either through a Web interface in Firefox or via the Nautilus file browser, with which it seamlessly integrates.
Users have to register accounts on Launchpad in order to use Ubuntu One. Currently, Canonical offers either 2 gigabytes of storage in the cloud for free, or 10 gigabytes for 10 dollars/8 euros per month.
The good
For a service that remains in beta, Ubuntu One works exceptionally well. Its strongest points include:
- Easy installation: it took only a few clicks and one gksudo to install the service on my Ubuntu 9.04 systems from the website. My only complaint is that the apt:// link didn’t work on one computer where I’d upgraded the browser to Firefox 3.5 using a third-party package–not Canonical’s fault, but situations like this should be taken into account in order to ensure ease of use.
- The service has worked great, even when I’ve had a flaky Internet connection. I was skeptical about its ability to keep things in sync and stable, but both the Web and Nautilus interfaces have been so smooth and responsive that I often forget my files are hosted in the cloud rather than the local file system. I receive a convenient notification when a new file upload has completed, and the system deals well with intermittent Internet connections.
The bad
Unfortunately, Ubuntu One also currently has some glaring problems, namely:
- Only Ubuntu 9.04 and later are supported, meaning users of LTS releases are out of luck, at least for now.
- More importantly, there’s no cross-platform support: the Ubuntu One service works only on Ubuntu. That’s great if you never have to use Windows or OS X, but few people enjoy that liberty. Granted, a Web interface is available for accessing and uploading files from any computer, but this approach is not well suited to intensive work. In principle, someone could implement the service on other operating systems, but neither Canonical nor any third party has announced such an endeavor.
- Much of the Ubuntu One code is not open source, which is a turn off for some free-software purists, as well as people concerned about security and privacy. But Canonical has a history of developing code in-house and opening it when it has sufficiently matured, so Ubuntu One’s closed-source status is likely temporary.
The future
The elephant in the room for Ubuntu One is Dropbox, which does almost exactly the same thing, for the same price, but works on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. Until Canonical addresses the interoperability issue, Ubuntu One will remain at a serious disadvantage vis-à-vis Dropbox.
That aside, the service’s pre-installed status in Ubuntu 9.10 does provide it a major edge over Dropbox and other competitors. If there’s one thing that Microsoft has demonstrated over the last two decades, it’s that most people will use what comes with their computers or operating systems, if only because they don’t know any better. By distributing Ubuntu One along with Ubuntu, Canonical positions itself to grow a large user base quite quickly, provided users have an incentive to give the application a try.
Ubuntu One could go far, and maybe even provide Canonical with another much-needed revenue stream. Or it could founder as a a result of its silly lack of cross-platform support. Let’s hope someone–either Canonical or a third-party–addresses this issue soon.
Canonical has open sourced launchpad after much criticism but continues to keep key portions of what it has developed proprietary. This includes landscape which it hasn’t mentioned that it is ever going to open source.
Ubuntu One is likely to going to remain proprietary unless Canonical business model on that, fails which maybe possible.
I’ve been using UbuntuOne for a while, and wish my experience had been as solid as yours.
I’ve had multiple errors (including a bug with my 64-bit 9.04 OS that lost a couple files), and synchronization has been weird enough that when I got busy, I stopped using the software entirely.
I certainly want to support Ubuntu financially, and hope – when I get around to playing with it again – Ubuntu One works flawlessly, solving all sorts of issues for me.
Canonical did the same thing with Launchpad: Closed source, once it got better and solider, they open sourced it. So this will take like 5 year to be open source.
[…] http://www.workswithu.com/2009/09/23/thoughts-on-ubuntu-one/ a few seconds ago from xmpp […]
Another thing that keeps me using Dropbox too is that you get much more space for the money.
[…] Thoughts on Ubuntu One I’ve spent the last few weeks testing Ubuntu One, Canonical’s file-storing and sharing service. Below is an outline of my experience, and thoughts on the future of the application. […]
Another solid user of Dropbox, I have several machines (between physical, dual-boots and vm’s) with diferent OS’s (XP, Win7,Ubuntu,Xubuntu) synced with no problems. For now I see no reason to move to UbuntuOne.
Why should Canonical open source the UbuntuOne server code? It’s like complaining that $RANDOM other big site that you use doesn’t open source its code (including all of google, sourceforge, etc.).
Also, the client side is open source, so if people want it, it’s possible to port it to Windows, Mac OS X amp; other operating systems. It’s not comparable with how e.g. Microsoft amp; Apple actively try to *block* other applications on their services.
The comparison with Dropbox might not be entirely right either, as I understand UbuntuOne is supposed to include additional services in the future.
PS: like many people I would have been happier if this service won’t use “Ubuntu” in its name, but that’s another story.
As a full time Ubuntu user across several machines, I’m perfect happy with Ubuntu one. If the goal is just to increase Ubuntu user share- then I see no reason to enable this service for Windows or Apple users. Keep the Ubuntu name for sure!
@LS:
Are you a paying UbuntuOne customer?
-jef
I’m not sure I see any advantages to Ubuntu One for me over dropbox. I’m not a fan of tomboy nor do I use Evolution for mail/contacts.
I’m also a fan of Dropbox’s photo gallery, which has no such equivalent in Ubuntu One, yet.
Add to it that Dropbox does work with windows and mac (I can refer my friends who are on those platforms and get added space to my account!) and the rather trivial point of the name reminding me indirectly of Harrison Ford and I just can’t find a compelling reason to keep it installed, or to not remove it when I help a friend install.
What I miss is the green check mark or blue processing symbols that Dropbox has. I want to know on my computer if the file is synced up or not, without having to log in to a website to check.
Just one of those thoughts that occur in the morning under the shower…
My webhost offers unlimited accounts and is very much pro-Linux. In one of their newsletters, they explain that massive back-ups are actually excluded from their conditions, but they offer 50GB free personal backup space for that purpose. Such space could become accessible through Ubuntu One on their servers. Benefits:
– Canonical negotiates free U-one server space and/or $’s
– Host gets great exposure and promotion
– User gets loads of cloud-space with hosting services
Or is this too good to be true?
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