Microsoft's Cloud Storage Service OneDrive Now Offers 15GB For Free

DroidJason1 writes Microsoft revealed today that they will be offering 15GB of free OneDrive storage, up from 7GB. Office 365 users will now get 1TB of storage, up from 20GB. This announcement comes after Amazon revealed unlimited photo storage for those who buy the new Fire phone. Dropbox, a competitor to OneDrive, currently has 2GB for free but offers more space if you refer people to the service. Google Drive offers 15GB of free storage, while Amazon Cloud Drive offers 5GB.

20K item limit...

[Anonymous Coward]

But they still have a 20,000 item limit for the 1TB OneDrive for Business user so you tend to end up hitting the item limit well before the data size limit...

15GB free, 1TB $80

[Jane Q. Public]

I have a "server" machine on my home network, with some big hard drives (inexpensive today). It is set up so on local network I can simply access the drives as though they were in my work machine, other than network latency of course. When away from home, I can use SSH and SFTP. (In fact I use SSH forwarding so I can access both the server and my regular work machine.)

Very simple. Easy to set up. Probably more secure than Microsoft anything. And no third parties involved.

I don't need "streaming" anything. I don't need DLNA or other kinds of streaming services. If I am away from home, I just download the file and view or play it locally. Disadvantage: that can take a while. Advantage: no blips or burps or freezes in my media, because IT'S LOCAL, not streaming.

I can also sync folders, if I want, via BitTorrent Sync. Again, no third party involved.

So, really: I don't need "cloud services". They offer me nothing I don't already do myself, and they add unreliability, privacy risks, and so many other things I really don't need to dick around with.

I would also like to find an NAS that doesn't have all those fancy bells and whistles, and doesn't make me pay for them. I just want it to "look like" a local drive on my home network. That is all. I will take care of the rest.

Various Dropbox promotions

[drew870mitchell]

Dropbox does start at 2GB, and this is a severe shortcoming compared to 15GB, but they give free additional storage for just about everything. I've gotten an additional 10GB, in smaller chunks, for:

• Having .edu address
• Using photo backup on smartphone
• Referring other users
• Reading their tutorial page
• Installing the application - per device

Et cetera. It does kind of stink jumping through hoops to get there, but unlike OneDrive (YMMV), Dropbox's syncing program actually works.