If there are any users here running PortableApps from cloud services such as Dropbox or Skydrive, do you have any "best practices" that you adhere to, either self-imposed or otherwise recommended?
One of the reasons I ask is because I've recently started using Microsoft's SkyDrive service to synchronize my entire PortableApps folder but I've noticed that SkyDrive kinda thrashes around while I'm using some PortableApps, as I would expect. To my mind, it would probably be better to turn SkyDrive off until I'm done with what I'm doing so that SkyDrive isn't constantly trying to upload files that are also constantly changing e.g. browser cache files. The downside to this is then that I have to wait, once I'm done to make sure everything's synced up.
I have to say that my experience thus far has been that SkyDrive is pretty slow (at least compared to Dropbox) and so I'm tempted to just let it run and try in vain to keep up with my ever changing cache files (as an example). Would it do any harm? I can't see that it would, other than wasting a bit of bandwidth.
Similarly, I've thought about what happens if I move to another synced computer and immediately start using PortableApps there without giving SkyDrive a chance to ensure it's fully in sync. I could run into some issues there methinks.
What are peoples' experiences and/or thoughts?
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I use SkyDrive myself (although not with PA). For my PA on the cloud, I'm using Dropbox. For the most part, it works. Every once in a while, it'll belch though. Once a month, I do a search on my Dropbox for
*conflicted.*, and delete anything that comes up. So far, this works for me. Dropbox seems to be the fastest of the cloud services that I use. I have not tried it with Box.net, although I seem to remember that they too have a client application.I would actually prefer to use SkyDrive for my PA on the cloud, as I have much more free space, but it is too slow. Not to mention, that the web interface does not like my small screen size on my netbook (big surprise there).
For me, Google Drive wouldn't even be an option. Google Drive allows you to have duplicate filenames (definitely bad if you have say extra setting files).
Bill G.
Frozen St. Paul, MN
land of the frozen mosquito
I hear ya on the size... I was fortunate enough to get in while the going was good with skyDrive so I have 25GB, which was just sitting around gathering virtual dust. Compare this with Dropbox, which I only have 3.2GB and that's with a couple of referrals! Even if I only had the new, standard size SkyDrive it would still be bigger than Dropbox!
As it happens, I'm actually using SkyDrive and Dropbox but for different purposes. The Dropbox is for a bunch of portable apps that are shared among all my family members, and then my SkyDrive is for apps that I use personally, as well as all my documents and other files. It just makes sense for me to use SkyDrive for the collection of files/folders that is bigger.
As I'm seeing though, SkyDrive is not without issues. The process of verifying all files/folders are in sync takes an age compared to Dropbox, somewhere in the order of minutes versus seconds. From what I've been reading online this is typical, maybe even fast with some users reporting that it can take half an hour or more for SkyDrive to get rolling.
I'm still in the phase of syncing my SkyDrive across all of my planned use computers so it's hard to gauge how well it performs under a "normal load". All I do know is that it took several hours (best part of 24) to upload about 3GB of data. It also look like it's going to take somewhere in the same order of magnitude to download it again to another computer in a different location. I don't really see any different in performance in the little checkbox about uploading in batches, although I have no quantifiable data to verify that.
My other concern would be that SkyDrive doesn't appear to be smart about utilizing a LAN like Dropbox is, to prevent the SkyDrive application from having to go out to the Net to get files when they are readily available on the LAN. This might not be so important once everything is synced up and my changes in files are much smaller (i.e. a few tens of megabytes versus a few hundred or even gigabytes worth).
All-in-all, I'm in the "wait and see" phase but I really am hoping they continue to make improvements to the SkyDrive service to at least get it on a par with Dropbox.
remember that when you use dropbox, and you have sent the files with the apps to the dropbox by placing them into the dropbox folder in your windows, then the files are local and thus available from there.
If you connect to some cloud service just by webdav etc, then nothing is local and all has to be downloaded first.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
Yes, yes! I'm only using them locally, no WebDAV, but in some cases i.e. at home I have at least two computers that I could potentially use, which makes going out to the Internet to download files redundant, when copies can be easily retrieved and transferred far more quickly across my LAN (Dropbox does this. SkyDrive does not).
I'm really using these cloud services as a synchronization tool. The fact that I can synchronize with any computer connected to the Internet is a bonus.
In reality, I could achieve my main aim (synchronization across multiple computers on a LAN) with something as simple as Toucan and a couple of Network shares (which I have done), but the cloud services give that "always on" feature if desired (which is desirable), or least a partial always-on, where I can simply turn off the cloud service temporarily and then re-enable it when I'm done working (to prevent "thrashing"). Otherwise, I'm required to run Toucan every single time, which I guess isn't a big deal, it's just that the cloud services are slicker in the way they work i.e. less user intervention required.
>or least a partial always-on, where I can simply turn off the cloud service temporarily and then re-enable it when I'm done working (to prevent "thrashing").
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
I've recently taken to using copy which is another file sync tool but cross platform which is good since I use windows Linux and soon osx
your friendly neighbourhood moderator Zach Thibeau
I have used Toucan and Windows network shares to sync up files and folders. It works reasonably well. Fortunately I don't have cross-platform issues at the moment. The downside is that this is a manual process and things can get complicated if I don't keep on top of the synchronization. I guess, I could set up schedule tasks but I'm dealing with multiple users (family members) across multiple computer just to further complicate things. The other issue I have is that I want to sync stuff with my work computer, which I can't (easily) do over a WAN. Using a cloud service negates these issues, but as I'm discovering comes with its own set of challenges.
I have tried Box.net , dropbox , wuala, and at home a simple file server and also tried owncloud on it.
So far have managed to somehow virtually run some programs frmo the lokal file server.
Zero programs run from any cloud service as on clouds there is no system to make anything to run. All has to be tranfered to local system first and will run from there then, but attempting to sync life something like thundferbird simply does not work as all changes try to synch with the file on server and this takes time.
Also my home server will not run anything in fact, it is jsut the relative speed of download over the lan having it fast enough in windows.
OK, my internet connection is rather slow 300k down, 30k up, so this is definitely preventing any app to arrive in reasonable time in the local computer.
---
Just tested again:
VLC player portable, sitting on cloud server, started by clicking on the exe after connecting via webdav to the server, started after 1h 22min.
It took other abt 20min to get the playlist.
When all finally loaded to local Computer all works as usual.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
wouldn't it be better to use a usb drive instead of cloud drive for pa apps? I've always used usb on my netbook. There are cheap usb drives for sale these days.
you need to have them on usb sick, local drive or in some cases on drive in your LAN.
No way to run portable apps from cloud drive, at least from the technical point of view I do not see any practical way of doing so.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
I guess the main problem with a USB drive is that I forget it! I might leave it at home when I need it at work or vice versa. In fact, up until recently, I had misplaced my primary USB flash drive. It had been missing for months. Yes, I could have bought a new one but I had other more important things to put my money towards. Using cloud storage, I never have to worry about forgetting/misplacing anything.
The other issue is that it's slow(er) when compared with regular hard disk drives. Granted, this is fast becoming a non-issue with better/faster USB drives being released all the time.
Furthermore, I've always used PortableApps in a non-traditional sense, as a total replacement for standard desktop apps. There are very few programs that I actually ever install on Windows these days (I can count them on one hand), but it is still convenient for me to have the "portable apps" on the local drive (achieved by sychronizing cloud storage across each computer as needed). Also, my computing habits are pretty limited. I don't use public computers much. I don't have a need to use friends computers much. Basically, I have a limited set of computers that I use consistently so it's not a huge hassle to synchronize a cloud drive between them.
I think it really comes down to personal preference, what computers you use and what works best for you overall. I just thought I'd try out using PortableApps via a cloud drive because Dropbox in particular had been working really well for me for other files.
Just to reiterate (as a general comment to all), I don't run apps directly from the cloud, I run them from a local drive, having synchronized a folder on that local drive with my cloud storage. The piece that I'm interested in is the synchronization piece, which gives me the ability to update a portable app once and propagate that update to all computers that are synchronized with my cloud storage. I know that if I used a USB drive I'd only have to update in one place, but as I stated at the beginning, I'm not very good at keeping track of my USB device apparently.
>Just to reiterate (as a general comment to all), I don't run apps directly from the cloud, I run them from a local drive, having synchronized a folder on that local drive with my cloud storage.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland