> with syncthing, you need to operate every piece of the system.
Again, this is false. The P2P relay/discovery nodes are operated by third parties donating server time and bandwidth. The user is not required to operate those parts of the network.
> That's an unrelated topic.
Definitely related to storage provisioning.
> This is about the total size of your data and whether it fits on multiple devices without inconvenience.
Convenience is entirely dependent upon the user's requirements. As I said, each node is not required to maintain full replication.
> you can save your data without needing to have enough space to have a full local copy
I'm not sure that putting a significant fraction of one's proverbial eggs in one basket is a selling point.
> If you're doing it yourself, you're taking on that responsibility entirely yourself.
I would add that you're always responsible for your data, third parties or not.
> What I've found to be sadly common is that people do these comparisons without actually matching equivalent levels of service and then get a painful educational lesson when something goes wrong and they lose something they cared about.
You and I could tell those people until we are both blue in the face, they are not going to learn until they have experienced it themselves.
> > with syncthing, you need to operate every piece of the system.
>
> Again, this is false. The P2P relay/discovery nodes are operated by third parties donating server time and bandwidth. The user is not required to operate those parts of the network.
Okay, let's think about this a bit more in depth: who's operating the computer which stores the data? If I have a laptop and a desktop, can my laptop backup its data if my desktop is powered off or my cable modem is down? If those third-parties decide to stop donating their time or something breaks and they don't have time to fix it, does my data still sync?
I don't see how the answers to any of those questions are compatible with “this is false” being a correct statement.
> You and I could tell those people until we are both blue in the face, they are not going to learn until they have experienced it themselves.
… and that's why for most people it makes sense to outsource these tasks to professionals who specialize in that work, just as most people pay mechanics to work on cars and contractors to fix their houses.
Again, my point was not that syncthing is bad but that an open-source project is not the same thing as a supported service. I get that you like this and want to evangelize it but misrepresenting what it does is just asking for someone to be disappointed.
Again, this is false. The P2P relay/discovery nodes are operated by third parties donating server time and bandwidth. The user is not required to operate those parts of the network.
> That's an unrelated topic.
Definitely related to storage provisioning.
> This is about the total size of your data and whether it fits on multiple devices without inconvenience.
Convenience is entirely dependent upon the user's requirements. As I said, each node is not required to maintain full replication.
> you can save your data without needing to have enough space to have a full local copy
I'm not sure that putting a significant fraction of one's proverbial eggs in one basket is a selling point.
> If you're doing it yourself, you're taking on that responsibility entirely yourself.
I would add that you're always responsible for your data, third parties or not.
> What I've found to be sadly common is that people do these comparisons without actually matching equivalent levels of service and then get a painful educational lesson when something goes wrong and they lose something they cared about.
You and I could tell those people until we are both blue in the face, they are not going to learn until they have experienced it themselves.