On Sat, Jan 24, 2026 at 02:57:27AM -0500, Steve Litt wrote: > Kent Borg said on Fri, 23 Jan 2026 06:23:32 -0800 > > uses Google web apps but they might switch to MS's competing products > > (horrors). One of the complaints is Google can't reliably store > > "files", they move around and get lost. Maybe Google stores the files > > If by "web apps" you mean wordprocessor, spreadsheet, presentation, > drawing, etc, if you do that with software on the web, you're asking > for data loss.
why? what type of "data loss" are you referring to here? why would lines of code run on my laptop be able to hold on to their data, while lines of code run on google's computers are prone to losing theirs? I'm quite sure that google has much better data resilience machinery *in place and running* than I do, and possibly than anyone here. (not that I *couldn't*, just that they *do* and I haven't spent the time, effort, and money to put together quite the same level of redundancy/replication/backup machinery and automation on my end.) > And it's no surprise that all these web apps make it > difficult to make a local backup: in google docs, File -> Download lets you get a local copy of your document in *eight* different formats including e.g. opendocument, markdown, docx... in google sheets it's 6 formats, in google slides it's 7 formats (plus additionally video, which I wouldn't consider a backup). and I believe they can import all of those formats (except video, though maybe they have an llm for that now ;). that's all right there near the top of the first menu on the screen, but if you want to automate it, all that can be done via a well-documented api google provides, and of course there are plenty of open-source tools like rclone which speak that api. plus, takeout.google.com allows you to download some or all of the data you have in these apps. > They want to be able to hold your data hostage. certainly they want you to keep using their products (which of course are no-cost, so I guess the "ransom" here would be the opportunity to serve you personalized ads in the future?), but given all the different ways they provide for you to make a local backup of your data, I just don't think it's accurate to say they're holding anything hostage. honestly, I'd be hard-pressed to think of more things they could do to make your data accessible to you. now, I don't think these google apps are perfect, far from it -- they can be sluggish and piggish to the point of being barely acceptable, they tend to be missing useful features, they keep trying to get me to do things I don't want to do (that looks like a table! can I make it into a table? here, I've already made it into a table for you!) -- but they also have some nice features: real-time collaboration with dozens of people was always their 'killer feature' and they've always done that well, I've found it helpful to be able to pull up a document on my phone when I'm afk and find I have a sudden need for a piece of information in it, and their document history is useful even if the ui to it could be better. and except for bozos who keep copying sheets and documents needlessly, version skew is completely eliminated. and imho any concerns about data loss (at least in the sense of hardware failure (incl lightning, fire, flood, theft, pets, other accidents), or even widespread software defects, causing bits in a file to be corrupted/ inaccessible) are also virtually eliminated. --grg _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
