Re:Rethinking the computer ‘desktop’ as a concept
by TeMPOraL on Tuesday June 01, 2021 @01:50AM
(#27351086)
> but for most users, they shouldn't care where it is saved, ala dropbox. They just want to access their files.
Yes, but it does matter where it's saved, because the location and method confers ownership of the data. "Possession is nine-tenths of the law" is the rule of modern Internet. It shouldn't matter whether my photos live on my drive or in a third party's cloud, but it does - because in the cloud setting, the company dictates what I can and cannot do with my data, can pull shenanigans like applying strong lossy compression to uploaded photos, and they will eventually take my access away - either I cross the ever-expanding terms of service somehow, or they'll just go out of business.
In my experience of both managing my own data and helping non-tech people, filesystem vs. cloud data durability is really a wash. People seem just as likely to lose their local data due to drive failure or accidental deletion, as they are to lose access to the cloud storage (or have the company disappear from under them).
Yes, but it does matter where it's saved, because the location and method confers ownership of the data. "Possession is nine-tenths of the law" is the rule of modern Internet. It shouldn't matter whether my photos live on my drive or in a third party's cloud, but it does - because in the cloud setting, the company dictates what I can and cannot do with my data, can pull shenanigans like applying strong lossy compression to uploaded photos, and they will eventually take my access away - either I cross the ever-expanding terms of service somehow, or they'll just go out of business.
In my experience of both managing my own data and helping non-tech people, filesystem vs. cloud data durability is really a wash. People seem just as likely to lose their local data due to drive failure or accidental deletion, as they are to lose access to the cloud storage (or have the company disappear from under them).