Any alternatives to Open Drive?

[eduardoecp]

Hello! I'm looking for an alternative to open drive, since the app is apparently broken and won't login. Do you have any sugestions to sync files with google drive in Puppy Linux?

[mikewalsh]

@ eduardoecp:-

<snip>....since the app is apparently broken and won't login....</snip>

I tried O Drive - v0.2.0 - when it first came out. For a while, it worked faultlessly. Then....poof! Just like that, it quit. I didn't know why at that time. I do now...

The Open Drive package is an "Electron" app. These are based around a stripped-down version of the Chromium browser. This is why v0.2.1 - which I've just tried - now uses the normal Google web-interface to sign in, except.....it won't.

This release is now around 18 months old. Google, being the security control freaks that they are, basically say that if you're not going to use an up-to-date, supported version of their browser, then sorry; you can't access your account. We're not going to LET you.....because in our considered opinion, it's not secure, and it's not safe.

WTF ??!?! If I want to risk an insecure connection to access my own a/c, surely it's MY decision? Big Brother says NO WAY. You don't get any choice here, amigo; it's OUR way, or not at all.....

Google do provide APIs to connect with many of their services, but are one of the biggest 'culprits' in this respect.....constantly 'sunsetting' and releasing new versions, TOTALLY WITHOUT PRIOR WARNING. If you're a developer, relying on their APIs to make an app work, it's down to you to totally rewrite your app to work with their new API.

One of our Puppy developers, Fredx181, built a brilliant little GTK-based two-pane file manager type of thing that you can use to 'manage' your G. Drive. It's been superb for the last 18 months/2 years. But so I understand, Google are planning to drop the API for this in the next couple of months.....

Sod's law, mate. It's like Alice in Wonderland, trying to play "footsie" with Big Brother. Ya gotta run as fast as you possibly can, just to remain in the same place..... (*shrug*)


Mike.

[greengeek]

Google, being the security control freaks that they are, basically say that if you're not going to use an up-to-date, supported version of their browser, then sorry; you can't access your account. We're not going to LET you.....because in our considered opinion, it's not secure, and it's not safe.

WTF ??!?! If I want to risk an insecure connection to access my own a/c, surely it's MY decision? Big Brother says NO WAY. You don't get any choice here, amigo; it's OUR way, or not at all.....

Hear, hear. That arrogant interference from Google has to be one of the most irritating and destructive behaviours impacting the internet. It stifles creativity and wastes time and money.

Not just a problem with Google alone - there are many companies that handicap their user interface by copying Google's behaviours and requiring users to keep pace with Google's offerings. I suspect this is laziness on the part of those companies IT teams rather than ACTUAL security requirements (I put CAPTCHA and ReCAPTCHA firmly in that category).

Would there be some advantage in having a "Puppy only" host for our shared files? Somewhere accessible to any Puppian that paid a contributory sub?

[eduardoecp]

@ eduardoecp:-

<snip>....since the app is apparently broken and won't login....</snip>

I tried O Drive - v0.2.0 - when it first came out. For a while, it worked faultlessly. Then....poof! Just like that, it quit. I didn't know why at that time. I do now...

The Open Drive package is an "Electron" app. These are based around a stripped-down version of the Chromium browser. This is why v0.2.1 - which I've just tried - now uses the normal Google web-interface to sign in, except.....it won't.

This release is now around 18 months old. Google, being the security control freaks that they are, basically say that if you're not going to use an up-to-date, supported version of their browser, then sorry; you can't access your account. We're not going to LET you.....because in our considered opinion, it's not secure, and it's not safe.

WTF ??!?! If I want to risk an insecure connection to access my own a/c, surely it's MY decision? Big Brother says NO WAY. You don't get any choice here, amigo; it's OUR way, or not at all.....

Google do provide APIs to connect with many of their services, but are one of the biggest 'culprits' in this respect.....constantly 'sunsetting' and releasing new versions, TOTALLY WITHOUT PRIOR WARNING. If you're a developer, relying on their APIs to make an app work, it's down to you to totally rewrite your app to work with their new API.

One of our Puppy developers, Fredx181, built a brilliant little GTK-based two-pane file manager type of thing that you can use to 'manage' your G. Drive. It's been superb for the last 18 months/2 years. But so I understand, Google are planning to drop the API for this in the next couple of months.....

Sod's law, mate. It's like Alice in Wonderland, trying to play "footsie" with Big Brother. Ya gotta run as fast as you possibly can, just to remain in the same place..... (*shrug*)


Mike.

I totally agree. And I get really mad when I remember Google had promissed a Linux client for Gdocs, but never fullfilled that promisse.

[666philb]

this is working for me https://github.com/liberodark/ODrive/releases

[mikewalsh]

this is working for me https://github.com/liberodark/ODrive/releases

Phil, which Pups d'you have that working in, mate?


Mike.

EDIT:- Nah; scratch that. I daresay if you've had yours operational for a while it may well keep going.....but even with 0.3.0 unstable, the version of Electron is simply too old. It insists it's unsupported....

[666philb]

this is working for me https://github.com/liberodark/ODrive/releases

Phil, which Pups d'you have that working in, mate?


Mike.

hi mike,

working here in fossapup tested today and was working in bionicpup last time i tried

[eduardoecp]

I've just tested again and it didn't work.

Since Google is so obssed with security, why don't it create a Linux version of Google Drive?

Well, anyone has any ideas on some alternative?

[p310don]

Rclone.

I have written a little "how to" to set up rclone to work as just another drive using Google Drive.

It can be read here:

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