Recommended paid applications ...?

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

No lifetime license. :cry:

Good evening,

So I installed Fedora KDE in a VM (does this count as my first distro-hop?*) - I wanted to give KDE a test anyway. I belatedly realised that this meant using the .rpm instead of .deb, apologies for that.

** although technically I did try out a version of Red hat and KDE for a while in around 1999.

Downloaded the rpm, installed, activated with my license.
I tested setting up Google Drive, DropBox, Backblaze B2, NextCloud. I've created a folder and uploaded to each, with varying success.

DropBox, Google, NextCloud: no problem. I've downloaded the test files on this Zorin host.

BackBlaze B2: I had a network issue while uploading, and it appears to be jammed. The status bar tells me its uploading, but nothing happens. The 'sync' list window tells me 0 items to sync. I've disconnected, rebooted and reconnected - the same message appears, and also appears now on my Zorin host ExpanDrive. I appear unable to up or download to B2 on either system.

I will add to this though that I have found B2 to be rather pernickety in the past. I've had to upload the same file multiple times, then check in the B2 web interface that the files have uploaded, and deleted multiple partial files. And that was on the Windows client also. I haven't found the service reliable, at least on my rather poor internet (8MB traditional copper old broadband, all I can get here). The client I use this for hasn't had any activity for a few months so I haven't been into the service in that time.

So, the jury is out on that one - it could be a B2 issue, could be ExpanDrive issue.

Microsoft OneDrive: fail. I enter my email, the one-time code I was emailed, approve - and - nothing happens. Definitely looks like there is an issue with this. The connection I had on my previous notebook worked without issue. I have no need for it these days.

I have emailed support with both these issues - I'll report back as and when. Lets say I'm not as convinced by them as I was. However, until now I haven't experienced any issues in several years of using. Lets see how they respond.

I would hold back on a license for now!

@NeilW - first, thank you for such a detailed report/post. Second, yes, please do let us know when and if they respond. I did e-mail them, but still haven't heard back as of this time. See if they reply by Monday or even tomorrow. Third, I agree; probably be best to hold off on a license right now. Thank you again!

@NeilW - upon looking at Insync again, and doing further research, it appears that Insync does in fact offer a lifetime license for the e-mail account you use for cloud storage. The subscription is for technical support only. They didn't make that immediately clear. I found a support page on their website that clarified things. Hmm. Now I'm seriously considering Insync ...

Update:

I tried the free trial of Insync. Nope. I had to do some cleanup after, too. Had to manually edit the .list file to get rid of the Insync repository. For whatever reason, it was not listed in Zorin's Software and Updates list of repositories. That was a bit annoying/puzzling. But I got it done; that's what counts.

So, where next? Why are these connections so hard?

I have in the last year divested myself of Google Drive storage (at least for personal use, clients still share work that way), I came off Microsoft OneDrive a couple of years ago.

For personal use I run NextCloud on one of my rented website servers, their Linux and Windows apps seem to work as expected for now. NextCloud also has a Zoom-like videochat facility which is handy, having a secure private chat with no time restrictions.

Anyway, I'll update when I have an ExpanDrive reply.

@Omnimaxus which services are you looking to connect to?

I just found the RCloneBrowser which may be worth a trial - available as Appimage, or self-compile. Last build date 2020.

Of course, this is FOSS, not paid-for as per this thread topic.

The recent version of Gnome has OneDrive support built in I believe, alongside the existing Google Drive support. I don't know if Zorin18 may support that out of the box?

Not sure. I might drop the idea altogether, and just stick with local storage. I'm hoping Expandrive responds to me, too, but there's been nothing so far. If they respond, great; I'll give them a try before buying their license.

I'll have to look at that link. And as for services - Google Drive. Thanks.

Hi again - I looked at Rclone. Ehh. Expandrive is more to my liking, I'd think.

Just need to know what the heck is going on with them - still in biz or not? Ha.

SoftMaker 2021 is free version

Thanks, but I have SoftMaker 2024.

Have you tried the Zorin-gnome inbuilt Google Drive? Settings -> Online Accounts, Add Google, then it shows up in Files. (For me it shows up in the left pane as the email address I use with Google).

I'll give it a shot later. Thanks.

Update:

Decided to not go with the built-in option. I had remembered that if one adds their e-mail or whatever to GNOME's online accounts, it gets infiltrated into the OS throughout. I don't want that. I'd rather have something discrete and easily removable. Thanks, though. Still haven't heard anything from Expandrive. If there's still nothing, I'll just stick with local storage. Not a big deal. Appreciate it.

I've only ever used cloud storage as a way for clients to share files, folders of images etc, documents.

I wasn't interested in it for my own storage - with my non-fibre internet I worked out it would take something like 3 years @ 24 hours a day to upload my lifetime library of work. As well as becoming expensive.

I built a NAS (OMV).

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