Dropbox works equally well across platforms with near 0 synchronization issues. It's just a folder. They aren't trying to add cloud to their own platform, they don't care what device you use or if you use Apple's word processor or Microsoft or Google Docs.
Dropbox has has a firebase/Parse style API you can use to build applications that store that application data in the cloud.
My favorite Dropbox API uses:
automatic syncing of O'reilly Media books. Whenever O'reilly updates one of their ebooks, I always have the current copy, because O'reilly syncs it with Dropbox.
1Password synching.
automatic Hackpad backups (they had that even before they were bought).
I installed this new app the other day, Trickster from the Mac App store, it automatically detected I was using Dropbox.
But I'll mention some negatives:
Those new recent android apps were really bad and I uninstalled them. Carousel and that other one, I don't even remember what it was now. They were just terrible apps, at least on my Galaxy S4.
I love Dropbox for exactly this reason. I can back up dotfiles, game settings, preferences, my music library... anything anywhere on my disk, as long as I symlink it. It does slow down some operations (since a Dropbox RMI needs to be called whenever one of those files changes) but it's saved me so many times, it's hard to believe.
Some would think this as a normal use-case for a cloud-drive.
It's more than just that since the Android and IOS 1Password apps can sync from Dropbox without Dropbox being installed on the device. They're synching using the dropbox API in those cases I'd think.
1Password's keychain uses resource forks I think, which makes it inherently not cross-platform (or rather, not cross-filesystem) and could explain the incompatibilities.
Not sure what could be the issue with DMGs, though, since that exact issue is pretty much the reason for their existence.
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Dropbox works equally well across platforms with near 0 synchronization issues. It's just a folder. They aren't trying to add cloud to their own platform, they don't care what device you use or if you use Apple's word processor or Microsoft or Google Docs.
Dropbox has has a firebase/Parse style API you can use to build applications that store that application data in the cloud.
My favorite Dropbox API uses:
automatic syncing of O'reilly Media books. Whenever O'reilly updates one of their ebooks, I always have the current copy, because O'reilly syncs it with Dropbox.
1Password synching.
automatic Hackpad backups (they had that even before they were bought).
I installed this new app the other day, Trickster from the Mac App store, it automatically detected I was using Dropbox.
But I'll mention some negatives:
Those new recent android apps were really bad and I uninstalled them. Carousel and that other one, I don't even remember what it was now. They were just terrible apps, at least on my Galaxy S4.
Dropbox supports symlinks (and the way you'd expect them to)
I love Dropbox for exactly this reason. I can back up dotfiles, game settings, preferences, my music library... anything anywhere on my disk, as long as I symlink it. It does slow down some operations (since a Dropbox RMI needs to be called whenever one of those files changes) but it's saved me so many times, it's hard to believe.
Woah. This is big news for me. I wonder why this isn't more obvious.
Some would think this as a normal use-case for a cloud-drive.
But since 1Password backups seems to be using a format that Box.com won't upload, they are rejecting the files with this error:
It also means that you can't save .dmg-files.
I don't understand these limitations, Box.coms software feels rock-solid, and then I hit these strange limitations.
Dropbox on the other hand seems to allow all the filetypes I have thrown at them.
It's more than just that since the Android and IOS 1Password apps can sync from Dropbox without Dropbox being installed on the device. They're synching using the dropbox API in those cases I'd think.
Dropbox also has problems with OSX Package files.
Rubitrack is one that caught me out - http://www.rubitrack.com/faq.html
"This is a problem known to Dropbox for many years and it affects not just rubiTrack but hundreds of Mac apps that use a package file format."
1Password's keychain uses resource forks I think, which makes it inherently not cross-platform (or rather, not cross-filesystem) and could explain the incompatibilities.
Not sure what could be the issue with DMGs, though, since that exact issue is pretty much the reason for their existence.