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Cloud Ubuntu News

Ubuntu One Hits the Million Users Mark 125

Posted by samzenpus from the open-lining dept.
dkd903 writes "Roberta Nilerud of Canonical has announced that their cloud storage service – Ubuntu One – has hit the one million users mark. Ubuntu One is a cloud storage service from Canonical that is very tightly integrated into Ubuntu. Although Ubuntu One is installed by default in Ubuntu, it is also available on Windows and Android."
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Ubuntu One Hits the Million Users Mark More

Ubuntu One Hits the Million Users Mark

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  • just a drop in the cloud (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 31, 2011 @02:12PM (#36940694)

    I hope you enjoy being a drop in the cloud, sheeple. Real men use something that no one uses yet OR that no one uses anymore.

    • I just use it for a 3rd backup of the games I purchase online. Never know when a vendor site is going to simply shutdown or stop offering my key downloads and physical damage could occur to my burned or hard drive stored copies at any time in the future. I could give two shits about the "cloud", if my data ever disappears or they start charging for basic accounts I'll simply go elsewhere. It's a decent enough convenience atm with 5gb of free storage.

      • 6GB wouldn't store more than half a game would it?

      • Never know when a vendor site is going to simply shutdown

        In that case, you wouldn't be able to reactivate a game even if you could redownload it. And I doubt that you can legitimately back up those games that are exclusive to consoles.

    • Re:just a drop in the cloud (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Technician ( 215283 ) on Sunday July 31, 2011 @02:39PM (#36940844)

      True story.. This year I used DOS Backup.

      Needed to retrieve some family letters and records from a deceased relative's backup on 3.5 inch floppies. Rebuilt a Windows 3.1 machine and restored the DOS backups to recover the files. The PFS First Choice files could not export the files into anything that would preserve the formatting in something more modern. A Google search provided the answer. Import the documents into Star Office and export them as MS Word 97 files. This was done on a Windows 98 machine. Sometimes it pays to keep old software for emergencies. Real Men keep backups.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by donaldm ( 919619 )
        Well I use ASCII for my document and file format and I have never had any problems reading them even on files I created over 30 years ago, of course you could have put your files into pdf or even odf which you could still look at for as long as the human race exists without ever having to install an obsolete OS. however these formats are nubies compared to ASCII.

        • The key here is it was NOT my backup that needed recovered. Having a backup of the old software was the key to converting it and keeping the format.

          Saving as an ASCII text file was an option and is still an option with MS Word. We should do this for future generations.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by antdude ( 79039 )

        Couldn't use a virtual machine (VM) for DOS and Windows 98?

    • RSYNC over SSH FTW!!!!

  • Link? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Ambvai ( 1106941 ) on Sunday July 31, 2011 @02:17PM (#36940718)

    So neither the article or the summary actually link to the main product at hand. Convenient.

    Here: https://one.ubuntu.com/ [ubuntu.com]

  • Support for other distributions? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by halfaperson ( 1885704 ) on Sunday July 31, 2011 @02:18PM (#36940734) Homepage

    it is also available on Windows and Android

    Perhaps, but I've got a few computers all running different Linux distributions (as is common amongst Linux geeks), and as long as they can't sync, Ubuntu One will have to wait.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Keruo ( 771880 )
      You could use alien to convert the package to rpm/tgz/pkg and use it in your preferred distro.
      • I don't think it's as easy as just converting the package, since Ubuntu One ties into a lot of other Ubuntu specific packages. I know some have tried it for Fedora [apestaart.org], with varying levels of success.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by donaldm ( 919619 )

      it is also available on Windows and Android

      Perhaps, but I've got a few computers all running different Linux distributions (as is common amongst Linux geeks), and as long as they can't sync, Ubuntu One will have to wait.

      All you need to do is nominate a master machine in your environment and then use "rsynch" to synchronise all important data to it.

  • Payment options (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Well then I guess they're over the initial investment, about time they implement more payment options for those who don't have a CC. Stupid thing is, I can pay for U1MS with Paypal, but I can't store more then 2GiB of mp3s in there because that requires a CC. And at the same time there's nothing stopping you from buying 5GiB+ of music (except it's a bit expensive to do that, but certainly feasible with ~â250). Makes no sense, especially since the store (where you buy pressed CDs and tshirts) has always

    • I can pay for U1MS with Paypal, but I can't store more then 2GiB of mp3s in there because that requires a CC.

      In which country do you live? A PayPal debit card [paypal.com] may be available in your area, and it's accepted anywhere MasterCard is accepted.

    • Music purchased from their music store doesn't apply against your storage limit. They will store any amount of purchased music for no extra charge.

      Unless they changed their rules since the last time I bought music there..

      Now, I no longer buy music from Ubuntu One Music Store due to the multitude of problems I've had with the service.. I've made 4 purchases, 2 had billing issues along the lines of double billing me, or billing me and never transferring the music to my storage space.. And a 3rd transferred an

  • Mac OS X is a full Unix operating system, complete with rsync. Is it possible we could get support for the Mac too?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ThorGod ( 456163 )

      For that matter, Windows support isn't actually available - yet. Windows support is, merely, "coming soon".

      If you want to use Ubuntu One, you have to either install Ubuntu or install it on one of your mobile devices. I have to wonder at it's usefullness...

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Knuckles ( 8964 )

        True, but to balance it out the submitter forgot about the existing iPhone/iPad support.

    • No one cares about proper "Unix" anymore, Linux is the new Unix.

    • The client is supposed to be OSS, so it should be possible to port it.

      • it should be possible to port it.

        It's always possible to port a free application that runs on a free operating system to a different platform: just run the free operating system in a virtual machine. But porting it to run within another operating environment requires porting all its dependencies. For one thing, it depends on gconf2, Perl, Python, D-Bus, Expat (via D-Bus), ncurses (via psmisc and D-Bus), SELinux (via D-Bus), init scripting (via D-Bus), APT (via python-apport), and many more [ubuntu.com]. (Is there a way to show a package's entire depend

  • Funny, I use Ubuntu as my desktop (technically my laptop) for almost a month now since Windows Vista became too much of a pain, but I have yet to bother with the Ubuntu One service. Maybe I'll click that icon now, and try it out. I'm actually not even sure what it is exactly.
    • Took me a while too!

      Essentially it's a remote backup service, plus a couple of bits. You tell it which folder/s to use and it uploads them to remote servers. Any time you're connected it syncs local and remote folders to the newest versions. It can run on multiple machines connected to the same account, so for example my Documents folder is identical on my netbook and desktop, and sync'd whenever either is online. There's also a web based interface so you can also access your files from *any* machine c

      • so for example my Documents folder is identical on my netbook and desktop, and sync'd whenever either is online.

        I often use my netbook while commuting on public transit. What happens when you make changes to a file in the Documents folder on a netbook while not connected to the Internet, then make changes to the same file in the Documents folder on a desktop PC connected to the Internet, then connect the netbook to the Internet?

  • I've been using Linux since the 90s. Not even all that long ago, Linux used to be such that if you had a configuration issue or a missing driver or were running into some bug, you could Google it and get some reasonable information. Now, if I do a search for issue $foo, annoying forums full of not very knowledgeable Ubuntu users clog the intertubes discussing $foo and a few dozen similar-sounding but very obviously unrelated issues [the obvious unrelatedness not seeming to dawn on people or keep them from

  • as a cloud sceptic and ubuntu user let me comment (Score:5, Informative)

    by drolli ( 522659 ) on Sunday July 31, 2011 @02:58PM (#36940932) Journal

    a) My primary use for ubuntu one is to buy music from the ubuntu one music store. Its handy to haver everything you bought available on all laptops.

    b) a second important function, which i dont use (i dont like my contact data in the cloud) is the synchronization with a mobile phone. There is no working built-in way in ubuntu which allows this.

    c) for some time the service was very slow and syncronization was unpredictable, so i dont use it for serious stuff right now.

    d) I would like a better integration in the desktop for start/pause sync for single folder or everything (if i am on my mobile AP i do not like to sync everything).

    e) it lacks storage encryption (unless you use encfs on the top, and encfs has issues itself)

    • Just out of curiosity , what issues have you encounters with encfs ? Been using it for years without problems so far.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by drolli ( 522659 )

        Performance/latency issues when exceeding a certain number (tried it on ubuntu 8.04-ubuntu 9.10) of enrypted files.

  • Downloads is not the same as uers (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    The number of downloads is never an indication on how many actual users are using a product.

    A lot of people download crap, just to see what it is. In the case of Linux, a lot of people download the OS, then give up soon after installation (if they manage to install, because many installers don't work on 1st run) when NOTHING WORKS out of the box. Others download and can't even figure out what to do with the downloaded files.

    Sure, to people like me, downloading and installing Linux distros is a no brainer.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by siride ( 974284 )

      Have you used Linux any time in the last, say, 3 years?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by lennier ( 44736 )

        Have you used Linux any time in the last, say, 3 years?

        Three years ago would probably be perfect. As long as the AC hasn't used it in the last two years, when Canonical started getting serious about destroying the user interface, the illusion that Linux is still a viable desktop OS would be unbroken.

        • Yeah, I know the feeling. I actually switched from Ubuntu to Debian a few weeks ago because it was taking me longer to configure Ubuntu the way I wanted it than it did to configure Debian the way I wanted it.

          It used to be that Ubuntu was just pre-configured Debian, now you have to spend so much time reversing crap that Canonical added in that the "expert" distros are easier. And no, this isn't based on obscure technical stuff, but just basic UI and usability. Like, why are the close/minimize buttons on

      • About two months ago, I bought a new Gateway computer, which had just come on the market, with a CPU that had just come on the market in February. I knew I was taking a risk, as Linux is notorious for poor support for new hardware, especially consumer-oriented hardware.

        I mounted a second hard drive on the removable hard disk enclosure the computer came with, and installed Ubuntu 11.04, using the default setup. It worked perfectly. There wasn't a single issue with manually installing kernel modules or with u

  • "Although Ubuntu One is installed by default in Ubuntu"

    So... is that one million users, or one million people who saw it installed, had a reaction of "what does this thing do, I can't tell by the name?" and ran it - once - to find out.

    • You have to register an account with the Ubuntu One service before you can start using it, so it takes more user action than simply installing Ubuntu.

  • I signed up for the Ubuntu One beta test as soon as it went public, so I've had an Ubuntu One account for quite a while, but I've never found any use for it.

    At the time of its introduction, the only available use for Ubuntu One was file syncing between computers running Ubuntu. Later, you could sync your Tomboy notes and Evolution address books between computers running Ubuntu. I would guess that there are relatively few Ubuntu users with Ubuntu running on multiple personal computers. Even for the narrow pu

    • Here are my primary uses of Ubuntu One:

      1) Sync files that I might want to load from another computer of my mobile phone. I do this with my ebooks and FBReader on Android.

      2) Sync Tomboy notes, which I can view from any computer or my mobile phone using Tomdroid. Having your notes available anytime, anywhere, is extremely useful.

      3) Sync photos taken on my mobile phone to my laptop automatically. Syncing videos takes a little manual work, but I'm told that's being resolved.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tepples ( 727027 )

      including running an audio streaming server on my computer

      How much does it cost you per month to upgrade to business class service to eliminate "no servers" clauses in the home ISP's acceptable use policy? And how much of your data plan's monthly transfer allowance are you using with this streaming?

      • For clarification: the audio streaming was for the personal use of me and my family, and in practice, only I ever used it. I made a point of making sure it was only accessible through passwords I'd assigned, in order to be able to claim, credibly, that I was only making my music collection available to members of my household. Initially, I was using Ampache as a Web-based front end for controlling the audio stream; later, I found I had better results using mpd to generate an http stream, and MPDroid to cont

        • using the approximation of one megabyte of data per minute of audio, a month of continuous audio is roughly 42 GB of bandwidth, out of a 250 GB limit on bandwidth per month.

          If you listen to four hours a day, that'd still be 7 GB/mo. On which devices did you listen? A lot of mobile devices have cellular data plans limited to 5 GB/mo.

          • My phone is a T-Mobile G2. I've got the "Unlimited" data plan, which means 5 GB/month. I haven't run into any problem with hitting the limit, and it looks like I've used about 700 MB in ten days, so perhaps I'm just not streaming that much. Looking at the numbers, though, it does look like I'd be better off just filling up my SD card with music when I'm at home.

            Given the trends with mobile providers, I probably shouldn't recommend that people get worked up about streaming audio to their phone, regardless of

  • ...drbd & overhead ethernet from house to shed with headless backup server. oh and backup server should have at least one built-in spider's nest, and the total cost of the installation should be... the cost of a reel of cat5 (from 15 years ago).

  • I'd love to use this service because I'm a huge Ubuntu fan, but the price just isn't competitive. $3 per month only gets you 20 GB.

    For example, you can sign up for a Dreamhost shared hosting account, get unlimited TB of storage and bandwidth for $9 per month: Dreamhost hosting plans [dreamhost.com]

    You can throw a multitude of various front-ends on it with their "Easy Install" or whatever the name is, and have pretty much any files you want served to you where ever you want.

    I have a lot more than 20 GB of data that I'd want

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