[clug] SparkleShare vs. Dropbox

[Scott Ferguson]

On 15/04/13 09:32, Bob Edwards wrote:
> I have been using SparkleShare recently (http://sparkleshare.org), which
> is a "Dropbox replacement" built on all the goodness of git and ssh etc.
> (and you can easily run your own server, so complete control over your
> files etc. - also runs on Macs, 'doze and Linux - but not Android, yet).
> 
> Anyway, being built on top of git, SparkleShare ends up using up to
> twice the disk space on each client as compared to just the files it
> is managing.
> 
> Eg. I have about 1.5GB of PDFs in a shared "folder" on my client and
> git adds another 1.4GB for its compressed, cryptographically hashed
> "repository" of those files. On the server, it only stores the 1.4GB
> of git stuff, but on each other client that is syncing with my share,
> there is the same git "overhead".
> 
> Anyway, I was wondering what disk space overheads Dropbox imposes. As
> I don't use Dropbox, I was wondering if someone on the list who does
> could let me know what extra disk space it might be using.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Bob Edwards.


I suspect the extra space consumed by Sparkleshare is the file history
(as Jamie suggested). Not necessarily a bad thing, and it tallies with
my experience when I used one account to backup another - the second
account was smaller, which makes sense as it had no history.
Dropbox doesn't include file history.

As an alternative to Sparkleshare consider git-annexe[*1] which doesn't
have the same limitations as git with filesize or partial checkouts. CLI
and web interface (uses native XMPP), includes a FUSE filesystem
(ShareBox[*2]). So far all the reviews I've read are positive.

Just to confuse people, Sparkleshare can use git-annexe.

[*1] http://git-annex.branchable.com/

Also:- (fully funded)
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joeyh/git-annex-assistant-like-dropbox-but-with-your-own/

[*2] https://github.com/chmduquesne/sharebox-fs