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Product Commentary: The new FolderShare: or how Microsoft succeeded in stealing my soulToni McConnel (6/05/06, 08:24 AM GMT) FolderShare is a Web-based file synchronization and remote access service that enables individuals or small business users to access files across multiple devices in a network or via the Web. Originally developed and operated by ByteTaxi since 2002, it�s not new, but the service has been acquired by Microsoft and is now offered through its Windows Live services. Although ByteTaxi charged $50 for the service, Microsoft is offering their beta version of FolderShare free. Synchronization and file sharing over networks and the Web is an exploding market, and are part of the trend to web-based services. There are too many offerings to even begin to catalog them here, but services offered vary greatly and so does the pricing. Remote file storage doesn�t do synchronization (yet), but is part of the trend and is the cheapest and the simplest if all you want is backup. Some plans are available for as little as $4 a month. At the high end are GoToMyPC and LogMeIn, which not only synchronize files between two or more computers, they allow you to access and control your computer from anywhere over the Internet, and also allow you authorize other individuals to access specified files. But these are too pricey for an individual who needs to pay by the month. For example, to synchronize my three computers with LogMeIn at the monthly rate would cost me $39 per month. Rates are much cheaper by the year, when the cost drops to $180 for three computers. All these services are sold as subscriptions. That�s fair enough, since the vendor must provide continuing services. and at first glance the fees charged, at least at the yearly rate, don�t seem unreasonable�until you figure out the cost over time. Three years of LogMeIn for my three computers would cost $540. Not much by corporate standards, but significant for an individual. That�s why so many companies are rushing to get into the Web-based services biz. Instead of charging you once for a software package, they can keep charging you forever. So why is Microsoft offering FolderShare free? I�m willing to bet you lunch at the Hard Rock Caf� in Blanding, Utah, that it�s one of Microsoft�s engulf-and-devour strategies to drive competitors out of the market and give the company yet another stranglehold on users, as they tried to do�and to some degree succeeded�when they started offering Internet Explorer free, bundled with Windows. I started out with a pure spirit There are a number of reasons why I avoid using Microsoft products, using open source freeware such as Mozilla Firefox browser, Mozilla Thunderbird email, and the OpenOffice suite when I can. Initially I started using such open-source freeware because it is often much better than commercial offerings. The reason is simple: instead of twenty programmers, there are hundreds and in some cases even thousands. In program development, when it comes to inventing new features and debugging and boosting performance, a great many cooks can make the broth as near perfect as software soup ever gets. And then there is the famous fishnet security of Microsoft offerings. Designed to keep out whales, it lets in a hundred thousand minnows. But a significant part of my motivation for not supporting Microsoft is their renown for scummy market-control strategies. Anybody who is anybody has sued Microsoft at one time or another, including Adobe, Apple, AOL/Netscape, Real Network, Sun Microsystems, and the U.S. gummint. Although the lawsuits vary in the particulars, they most often involve monopolistic, antitrust, patent infringement, and other unfair market practice issues. Not that the corporations bringing the lawsuits necessarily have clean hands; it�s just that Microsoft is shocking in the degree and blatancy of its aggression and arrogance. So part of my boycott of Microsoft is based on moral indignation. Then here comes FolderShare� �and not only is it free, it outperforms any other solution for synchronization and Web access I can afford. Once your �libraries� (groups of files to sync) are set up it synchronizes almost as fast as you make changes. Installation is easy: you visit the FolderShare web site and sign up for your free account, then you download the FolderShare program to each computer having files you want to sync or access remotely. Each computer must be online and running FolderShare, of course. No charge for extra computers. Clicking on the FolderShare icon in the system tray opens the FolderShare Web page, where you log in. You are then taken to your account page where you choose between three options: Sync My Folders, Share with Friends, and Access My Files. Sync My Folders is where you designate the files you wish to keep synchronized between your computers. This is exquisitely simple, involving only clicking on choices in dropdown menus for each computer you are synchronizing. You can choose automatic or manual sync modes. The sync process is done completely in the background, but there is an activity window you can turn on to watch file transfers in progress. This window is updated in real time. The Share with Friends mode lets you invite people via email to share files you designate. They will need to install FolderShare on their computers to do this (oh clever Microsoft). Access my Files is the mode you use to access your files via the Web or an Intranet. So far Microsoft is not offering remote control of your computers, like GoToMyPC and LogMeIn, but I�ll bet another lunch that it�s on the drawing board. FolderShare is a beta, I imagine because Microsoft is making changes to the original program developed by ByteTaxi. So you can expect glitches. One of them is that although the Web site proclaims there is no limit to the number of files you can synchronize, there is. I have discovered that I am limited to ten libraries (or folders), and no folder can have more than 10,000 files. A mere 100,000 files total. (This information is current as of May 29, 2006. Being a beta, things may change from week to week.) Compare that to BeInSync, which offers a free version of its synchronization software, but you are limited to 10 file transfers day. LogMeIn�s free version allows remote access but won�t synchronize files. In other words, free file sync programs are limited versions of the paid versions. Back to beta glitches, I have also discovered that if I forget about FolderShare and move files from a synchronized folder to a folder that is not synchronized, I can end up losing my files completely on the other computers. User stupidity, of course, but there should be warning messages such as �You are moving a FolderShare file to a folder that is not in your libraries. If you move this file your other computers will think it has been erased and your data will be removed from all synchronized computers.� But other than these minor complaints, FolderShare has simplified my life immensely, at a price I can afford�free! Until there is an open-source free alternative, Microsoft has trapped me in what is probably a scheme to destroy BeInSync, LogMeIn, and all other online sync services. It�s not the first time my moral principles have failed under pressures of self-interest. Toni McConnel is executive editor of iApplianceWeb. She is working up her courage to switch from Microsoft Windows to Linux. Do you have comments on this story? Write to Toni TechRite-Associates.com. You know where to put the @, don�t you? If you�re smart enough to know that, how come you�re still using Internet Explorer? For more information about topics, issues and technologies mentioned in this story go to the flashing icon in the upper left corner on this page or go to the iAppliance Web Views page and call up the associatively-linked Java/XML-based Web map of the iApplianceWeb site. |
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