iCloud vs. Skydrive

[Tinyluph]

When reading about Skydrive and its future implementation into Windows 8, I can't help but feel a little envious. The free service offers 25gigs free compared to the 5gigs on Apple's iCloud.

Furthermore, as far as I know Apple still doesn't have a simple file management system for iCloud since iDisk is gone--where Skydrive and Dropbox do. I kind of understand that they're trying to shift everything to applications so that people don't have to worry about files, but this actually feels more complicated and less simple to me. Now I have to keep track of all the files each of my applications is using? How exactly is this a simpler solution?

[neiltc13]

Skydrive is great, and had the automatic photo uploading feature on Windows Phone 7 devices long before Apple announced it.

There is an application for Mac that works with it too, Windows Live Mesh.

[rowley]

I personally feel that dropbox is still the best for files. Skydrive is good for syncing folders to the cloud, but both the mac and ios applications leave a lot to be desired.

[chaosbunny]

Who cares? Uploading ones files to some big corporations servers is foolish anyway.

[ChazUK]

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Quite impressed with what's been announced and I will use it in conjunction with my Windows Phone.

I personally prefer dropbox for cloud storage due to the fact it plays nice with many platforms.

I am finding that I'm getting data scattered all over the place which could be a pain (auto picture upload on Android via Drop box/Google+ & SkyDrive on WP7).

For now it looks like I'll be sticking with Google Music tho for music access as it works in my PC's, my Android hardware and my HTC Titan via the Gooroovster app on Windows Marketplace.

[DingleButt]

Skydrive has morphed from a middling service to the top offering of its field IMO. Im almost definitely just going to stick with Skydrive now that its baked into Win8/WP and available as apps/online from iOS/OSX/Win7 etc. and forget about Dropbox and Google Docs.

Its just better than Google Docs and Dropbox for what I need as far as storing, collaborating, sharing, and editing documents in the cloud.

The only thing I want is for more people to use it for collaborating than Google Docs. I love the edit in browser and edit in Office features that makes Skydrive so powerful.

iCloud really has no appeal to me from what Ive seen since I dont bake myself into the Apple "ecosystem"

[Melrose]

I upload to my own server space, which I pay $90 a year for and is unlimited.

DropBox for syncing up small files. Larger ones or lots of smaller files in one bundle typically go to my own server.

As much as I like cloud drives, and as very convenient they are when I need them, I can't justify spending anything for them, and that only leaves ease of use. Which, while I don't like them as a company, DropBox.

[rhett7660]

I am in the same camp as others, I have been using Dropbox pretty much since day one. I like skydrive only for the size they give you which is super nice.

[beyondthesmile]

Originally Posted by Melrose

I upload to my own server space, which I pay $90 a year for and is unlimited.

DropBox for syncing up small files. Larger ones or lots of smaller files in one bundle typically go to my own server.

As much as I like cloud drives, and as very convenient they are when I need them, I can't justify spending anything for them, and that only leaves ease of use. Which, while I don't like them as a company, DropBox.

Just curious, as someone who doesn't know much about the specifics of the company, why do you dislike DB as a company?

[roadbloc]

2GB Dropbox does me fine. I do however, have iTunes Match for my music collection.

[Melrose]

Originally Posted by beyondthesmile

Just curious, as someone who doesn't know much about the specifics of the company, why do you dislike DB as a company?

It's just a small pet peeve is all, nothing major. Their service is fantastic.

[maflynn]

Originally Posted by roadbloc

2GB Dropbox does me fine. I do however, have iTunes Match for my music collection.

I'm happy with dropbox, I'm up to 6gb of space with them, but I'm hardly using it. Skydrive looks interesting but I'm unsure of the cross platform syncing.

As for iCloud not having a file system, some of that may come with Mountain Lion however apple did not put a consumer facing file system in iOS and in a sense thy're masking it a bit with OSX (versions and save, no save as). I wouldn't be surprised if there was none in iCloud

[beyondthesmile]

Originally Posted by Melrose

It's just a small pet peeve is all, nothing major. Their service is fantastic.

Ah, okay. Thank you Wasn't sure if it was something ethics related or something else like that. TY

[*LTD*]

Dropbox is superb. I have only good things to say about it.

For the rest of the time, iCloud, especially the way it's implemented in Mountain Lion.

[AppleScruff1]

Originally Posted by *LTD*

Dropbox is superb. I have only good things to say about it.

For the rest of the time, iCloud, especially the way it's implemented in Mountain Lion.

iCloud runs on Microsoft Azure.

[Supa_Fly]

Originally Posted by AppleScruff1

iCloud runs on Microsoft Azure.

Huh?! Can you elaborate, considerably more as you've lost me here.

[MorphingDragon]

Originally Posted by Melrose

I upload to my own server space, which I pay $90 a year for and is unlimited.

DropBox for syncing up small files. Larger ones or lots of smaller files in one bundle typically go to my own server.

As much as I like cloud drives, and as very convenient they are when I need them, I can't justify spending anything for them, and that only leaves ease of use. Which, while I don't like them as a company, DropBox.

You could use Barracuda File Server on your server. Its WebDav so you could get DropBox like functionality.

Originally Posted by Prom1

Huh?! Can you elaborate, considerably more as you've lost me here.

Azure is like Amazon S3. Its a "Public Cloud" service. They rent you infrastructure basically.

Now to really confuse you their infrastructure is itself a private cloud that probably runs on RedHat or VMWare products.

[*LTD*]

Originally Posted by AppleScruff1

iCloud runs on Microsoft Azure.

Which has what, exactly, to do with the way it's implemented in OS X?

[MonkeySee....]

Originally Posted by neiltc13

Skydrive is great, and had the automatic photo uploading feature on Windows Phone 7 devices long before Apple announced it.

There is an application for Mac that works with it too, Windows Live Mesh.

You mean like Google Picasa which was out way before Windows 7?

*Makes me feel sick giving google any kind of praise by the way.

[Melrose]

Originally Posted by MorphingDragon

You could use Barracuda File Server on your server. Its WebDav so you could get DropBox like functionality.

I had not heard of this. Thank you!

edit: Checking it out, unless I'm at the wrong product, I'm not technically advanced enough to set it up. Shoot.

[stiwi]

Originally Posted by rowley

I personally feel that dropbox is still the best for files. Skydrive is good for syncing folders to the cloud, but both the mac and ios applications leave a lot to be desired.

Exactly. I was using Live Mesh for quite a long time and was happy with it. I would even say it was superior in some cases than Dropbox. But unfortunately it failed recently on syncing one of PDF file that was 8MB. I tried to remove the file from synced folder, copy it again and it just couldn't sync it for whatever reasons.

Sadly, Live Mesh is like an unfinished and undeveloped product on OSX.