April 2012 - Neil Turner's Blog

The technical superiority of Dropbox

December 23, 2024April 29, 2012 by Neil Turner

Although I’ve made a few edits to my SkyDrive vs Dropbox vs Google Drive blog post from last week, I haven’t gone into much detail about some of the more technical aspects of the services. Dropbox, being the more mature of the three, has some clever tricks up its sleeves which Google Drive doesn’t have, and SkyDrive also appears to lack too.

LAN sync

LAN sync is a DropBox feature that will share files between computers on the same network. If you have Dropbox open and signed in to the same account on two computers on the same network, and save a file into your Dropbox folder on one computer, then as well as uploading that file to Dropbox’s servers, that computer will also send the file to your other computer over the network. This is much quicker than the other computer waiting for the file to be uploaded to Dropbox’s servers to download it again, and saves on your bandwidth. Google Drive doesn’t have LAN sync, and I don’t think SkyDrive does either.

Sadly, LAN sync only works between desktop computers; if you save a file on your iPhone, it won’t appear on your desktop until your desktop has downloaded it from Dropbox’s servers, even if you have Wifi enabled on your iPhone.

Delta syncing

If you edit a file that’s already in your Dropbox, Dropbox will detect which bits of the files have changed, and then only upload those changes. Google Drive isn’t quite so intelligent and will just upload the whole file again. So if you have a 750 MB high definition video in your Dropbox, and change some of the metadata in the file’s header, Dropbox may only need to upload a few kilobytes (and other computers on your Dropbox account will only need to download those few kilobytes too). Google Drive will instead upload the whole 750 MB file again. Coupled with the lack of LAN sync, as mentioned above, that’s a lot of bandwidth being used unnecessarily.

Duplicate file detection

If you put two identical copies of a file in your Dropbox folder, Dropbox will detect that they’re the same and just upload one copy, but make sure that both copies are on its servers (note that both copies will count towards your total storage space). Google Drive will still upload both files regardless of the fact that they contain the exact same data.

Resurrecting deleted files

Dropbox keeps a file history going back 30 days, meaning you can recover deleted files and also revert to older versions of existing files. Google Drive doesn’t appear to let you revert file versions but deleted items go in a trash folder. But Dropbox is also clever about deleted files. Say you have a file in your Dropbox folder, which you then drag to the Recycle Bin; Dropbox will delete the file, but let you recover it on the web if you wish; but also, if you undelete that file on your desktop and put it back into your Dropbox, Dropbox will detect that the file was already on its servers and just make the file live again – it won’t need to upload it again.

Memory efficient desktop client

Client name	32/64-bit	Idle CPU Usage	Real memory usage	Virtual memory usage
Dropbox	32-bit	0 %	41.7 MB	56.6 MB
Google Drive	32-bit	1.5 %	61.7 MB	64.6 MB
SkyDrive	64-bit	0.3 %	17.1 MB	22.5 MB

I ran all three clients at the same time and compared their performance using Mac OS X’s Activity Monitor. SkyDrive is arguably the clear winner here – although it uses a little more CPU than Dropbox, its memory usage is tiny, and it’s the only one of the three to take advantage of OS X’s code operations for 64-bit applications. Google Drive is a hog by comparison, using almost 3 times more memory than SkyDrive and much more CPU – and this is whilst idle, i.e. not syncing files. Furthermore, this is despite not having the advanced features that Dropbox has.

Obviously Google Drive is new and it’s likely that future releases will reach closer feature parity with Dropbox, but right now, Dropbox is technically superior than Google Drive, thus working faster and saving your bandwidth. I haven’t looked into SkyDrive as much as I possibly should have and will revisit this post when I have more information.

Much of the information for this article is sourced from this post on Dropbox’s foums.

SkyDrive vs Dropbox vs Google Drive

December 23, 2024April 24, 2012 by Neil Turner

Back in December I did a quick comparative review of Microsoft’s SkyDrive and Dropbox, and basically declared Dropbox the winner. Things have changed since then – Skydrive, now known as OneDrive, has become much simpler, and Google Drive has launched (literally a few hours ago). So, it’s about time to revisit the subject of which is the best.

Storage space

If we’re talking free, then OneDrive is the clear winner here. At the moment, you can get 25 GB of space for free, although this is for a limited time only; if you don’t sign up before the offer ends, you’ll have 7 GB. But this still compares favourably with Google Drive, which offers 5 GB, and Dropbox, which offers only 2 GB (although it’s easy to get more, up to a maximum of 18 GB).

If you’re willing to pay, then Google’s cheapest package is 25 GB for $2.49 per month ($29.88 per year), Dropbox’s cheapest is 50 GB for $9.99 per month or $99 per year (but you still get extra space with referrals so you may get up to 82 GB), and Microsoft’s cheapest is £6 per year for an extra 20 GB on top of your free 25 GB, for a total of 45 GB. On this basis, OneDrive also wins for being the cheapest.

So, if it’s lots of space you’re after, go for OneDrive.

A screenshot of the announcement page for Google Drive

Desktop compatibility

If you want to be able to use your files on a computer, you’ll need to install a desktop client. If you use Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Mac OS X Lion, then all three services will cater for you. If not, then your choices are a little more restrictive.

If you use Linux, then Dropbox is your only option, as OneDrive and Google Drive doesn’t yet have an official client. Dropbox and Google Drive support Windows XP, but OneDrive doesn’t – although it is possibly to mount your OneDrive in XP using the command line, if you’re happy to do that sort of thing. OneDrive will also only work on Mac OS X Lion – earlier releases aren’t supported. Google Drive definitely works on Lion but I’m not sure about older OS releases.

Dropbox also seems to offer more features – files can be synchronised between computers over a LAN if they’re on the same network, thus making uploads faster between machines, and you can also enable ‘selective sync’ if you don’t want all of your Dropbox folders to be synced to certain computers. There’s also some extra options when you right-click a file, allowing you to copy a public link to that file in your Dropbox to share – OneDrive and Google Drive only offer this on their online versions.

On my Mac, Dropbox used the least RAM of all three – around half that of Google Drive. All three apps are 32-bit only, however, and do not take advantage of the performance improvements available to 64-bit apps on the Mac.

Dropbox is also very bandwidth efficient, especially when compared to Google Drive; if you modify a file in your Dropbox, only the parts of the file that have been changed will be uploaded, not the whole file as with Google Drive. Finally, Dropbox and Google Drive put indicators on each icon to show its status – whether the file has been synced or is being synced, and, on a Mac at least, OneDrive doesn’t do this.

Dropbox wins this round, for greater compatibility and more features.

Mobile compatibility

None of the three services officially support all four major smartphone platforms – iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry. Google Drive is, at time of writing, Android only, although an iOS app is in the works and should be available shortly. Dropbox has official apps for iOS, Android and BlackBerry, and there is an unofficial Windows Phone app called Boxfiles (which I believe costs a small amount of money to buy). OneDrive has official apps for iOS and Windows Phone, but no Android or BlackBerry client; although Browser for SkyDrive is a third-party Android app. So, chalk another win for Dropbox as it’s the only one that can be used on all four smartphone platforms, albeit unofficially on Windows Phone.

Web access

All three services are designed to help you move files between multiple computers, but what if you need to access your files on a computer where you haven’t installed the desktop client? Well, thankfully you can also access your files in any web browser on all three services.

Dropbox’s web access is basic, allowing you to do basic file and folder operations, view photos and movies and recover previous versions of files, but you can’t edit any documents stored on it. OneDrive and Google Drive both integrate file editors – Office Live and Google Docs respectively – so you can actually view and edit documents online. Unfortunately, files created in Google Docs on Google Drive can only be edited in Google Docs unless they’re exported as Microsoft Office or OpenDocument files, so even on the desktop, opening a Google Docs file will open your web browser.

All services allow you to search your storage, but Dropbox’s search is quite basic. OneDrive uses Bing, which should be more powerful, but Google Drive excels by including OCR support in its search, letting you search text inside image files, and image recognition, so it would recognise photos of the Eiffel Tower (for example) and allow you to search for these accordingly.

Security and Sharing

Google Drive is arguably more secure than Dropbox or OneDrive because it allows 2-factor authentication along with the rest of your Google account, so even if someone has your password, it’s almost impossible for that person to get access to your account. Note that all three now offer this (March 2014)

All three let you share files with others, and while Dropbox is the only one that lets you do this on the desktop as well as online, OneDrive will also share files with your friends on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace (although you can’t control which friends can access it). Google Drive similarly offers Google+ integration.

Google Drive and OneDrive also provide collaboration tools with other users; whereas Dropbox simply lets you share a file with another user, Google Drive and OneDrive will let others edit the file, track their changes and allow you to chat whilst doing it.

Third-party access

Dropbox has an open API which means that you can allow third-parties to access your files, such as ifttt, and also means that unofficial clients can give you access to your Dropbox. Google Drive also has an open API, but having only just launched means that there are only a few sites, like HelloFax, which can use it as yet. But, this does mean that unofficial clients for platforms like BlackBerry and Windows Phone are possible in the future. Similarly, OneDrive has an API which has resulted in the aforementioned unofficial Android client, as well as a plugin for Outlook, but there isn’t yet the breadth of apps which take advantage of the Dropbox API.

In summary

If you’re after a lot of space, go for OneDrive, as it gives you more free space than the others and extra space is pretty cheap. If you need to collaborate on documents, or regularly work on the web rather than on a computer where you can save files, then Google Drive and OneDrive are both worth considering. But if you want the greatest compatibility, and, in my opinion, something simple that just works, go for Dropbox.

Of course, all of these services are constantly evolving – and Google Drive only launched today – so this advice may well change in future. In the meantime, I’m personally sticking with Dropbox – and here’s my referral link for good measure.

(credit to Lifehacker for some of the information in this article)

Note that this article was updated on the 27th April to mention the SkyDrive API and the availability of an unofficial SkyDrive app for Android.

The Equal Civil Marriage Consultation

December 23, 2024April 8, 2012 by Neil Turner

If you live in Britain, and have an opinion on the proposal to allow same-sex couples to have a civil marriage, please go to the Home Office web site and complete their consultation questionnaire. It shouldn’t take any longer than 10 minutes to do, and will ensure that the Home Office receives a large number of views.

If you don’t yet have an opinion on the matter, have a read of my views, and then make your own mind up.

It probably won’t surprise you that I am very much in favour of marriage equality – allowing couples to marry regardless of their sexual orientation. My reasons are:

It’s achieving equality. Right now, depending on your sexual orientation, you can either have a marriage or a civil partnership. This isn’t fair – nobody chooses to be gay, straight or bisexual. It’s not a lifestyle choice. Having one set of rules for one type of people and another site for another type is discrimination, pure and simple. If, say, black people were banned from getting married and had to get civil partnerships instead, there would be outrage.
It will save the marriages of transsexuals. At present, if a man and a woman are married, and the man wishes to undergo a sex change to become a woman, then by law the marriage must be dissolved – even if the couple still love each other. It doesn’t even convert to a civil partnership – the couple would have to acquire that later, at an extra cost. To me, that’s totally wrong.

Some people seem to think that allowing same-sex couples to have civil partnerships is good enough. Don’t get me wrong, I think civil partnerships are a great idea, and their introduction in 2005 was a massive step forward for gay rights. For the first time, same-sex couples could have the same legal rights as different-sex couples, including the right to a civil ceremony that is very similar to marriage. But it’s not the same – it’s still one set of rules for one group, and another set for another group. This consultation will remove that distinction, and provide one set of rules for everyone, regardless of gender.

I do, however, feel that this consultation could go further. As it stands, the Home Office are only consulting on civil marriage – i.e. non-religious ceremonies. Even if same-sex civil marriages become legal – and I hope they do – religious organisations won’t be able to conduct same-sex marriage ceremonies (although they can offer blessings as now). There are some religious groups out there, like the Quakers and Unitarians, who would like to conduct same-sex marriage ceremonies if legally allowed to do so. I don’t think all religious institutions should be forced to marry same-sex couples, but those institutions that want to do so should be allowed to do so. If you agree, note this in the comments on the consultation.

And a final word. As you know, Christine and I are getting married ourselves next year. We’re fortunate that we’re a different-sex couple who love each other. I really hope that, in the future, my same-sex friends who love each other will be able to do the same. Please, do your bit and fill out the consultation. Thank you.