Update: Michael Merhej just emailed me and confirmed that the Mac version will be re-released by end of the weekend. Okay we can all exhale, because our favorite app is going to remain cross platform.
Foldershare, a file syncronization p2p application which I have written in the past has been acquired by Microsoft for an undiscolosed amount of money it seems. A reader had alerted me that Foldershare had stopped the Mac downloads, and wondered if the company had been acquired. I heard back from Michael and he promised that the download would be back online by end of the weekend. After today’s news, I wonder if he will keep the promise 🙂
If the download doesn’t return, then it will prove Russell Beattie’s contention that Live is nothing but Monopoly 4.0. More than all the song-and-dance about Microsoft’s new found Web 2.0 religion, I want to see if they really practice what they preach. This will be the first test as far as I am concerned. That Shrek thing, lets put that on hold for now.
I rely on the cross platform capabilities of this software for my education. Without the mac version of this software, I have no clue how I would manage my two laptops and all the data that I need at any moment from either one of them. I only hope that Microsoft can recognize the significance of FolderShares Win/Web/Mac multiplatform goodness, or else I will be one sad customer+computer user.
Bullshit. You’ve already made up your mind on MS. Are you going to jump up and down and say, ‘they get it’ if they do include Mac compat? No. Sit down and put a cork in it fatty.
Just the other day I was reminiscing about the days when Wordstar, Wordperfect, and Lotus 1-2-3 ruled the PC roost and the only people who used Excel and Word were Mac guys . . . How soon we forget.
jammy, name calling is not appreciated. since i don’t know how you look, i cannot respond 🙂
of course, if they do continue the mac compatablity. i will absolutely applaud them for what they do. that’s just the way it is. i keep saying microsoft office for mac is better than their windows products.
Classy attitude Om by not removing the personal derogatory attack. However, you can safely remove his profanity from his post.
It’s interesting it was bought by the MSN group…it could be a cool feature in Windows Live, as long as they continue multi-OS support…else, there’ll be an opportunity for another standalone foldershare competitor.
And Jammy, enough with the name-calling…you’ll get a lot more attention for your views with a more mature approach.
Interesting, given that MS already owns Groove, which also has folder sync capability. Why would they need this company? MAC compatibility? What does it mean for Groove?
Are there any other cross-platform tools out there like FolderShare? I purchased their pro license and, up until now, I’m glad I did. However, since I’m Mac-based, I rely on the cross-platform nature of the tool. To me, it’s one of the best “web” services I’ve ever used. Let’s hope it remains that way despite it’s new owner.
I’ve been happily using foldershare for over a year. I can’t say that I’m happy about this announcement. Right now, foldershare offers me a great value. The client software is lightweight, the price is reasonable, and it does just what I want it to do. All of that is at risk once MS starts bundling it into their services offering. It will become burdened by serving their larger services strategy.
To be fair, this is the nature of just about every acquisition (not just those that get absorbed into Microsoft). Either the acquirer continues to invest in technology, but those investments serve a larger strategy, or they put the money primarily into sales and marketing while the product technology is neglected.
Jammy, do your parents know how you interact on the web?
Nice rush to fallacious judgment. Well played. It’s the new epoch, where being right no longer matters nearly as much as being first to pip up with whatever drivel comes into our head. Jagass.
My stealth-mode startup sort of competes with this service so I am biased. But I have one comment – how are Microsoft going to make this easy for your average MSN user? Foldershare being P2P requires firewall trickery. I expect MSFT to make at least one more aquisition (xdrive?) to make this work the way they see it.
rsync has been available for years in *nix platforms.
“Interesting, given that MS already owns Groove, which also has folder sync capability. Why would they need this company? MAC compatibility? What does it mean for Groove?”
Well, there’s a significant feature of FolderShare that people seem to be ignoring.
well groove is probably designed for enterprises.. (beside there is STILL no mac support for Groove on Mac)…
i suspect this is meant to be a light weight solution to bundle with Messenger…
future releases of Windows (post Vista).. will have Groove plumbing built in…
then they wont need foldershare…
Suresh, that brings up an interesting point…
Why is Groove a Windows – only tool?
You might want to look at this from the FolderShare site:
What are the system requirements for FolderShare?
Operating System:
Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003
I’m a longtime user of foldershare and I have to say I’m very disappointed in foldershare selling out to Microsoft.
Foldershare has already changed.. with their new upgrade it eliminates 256-bit AES encryption, places a 10,000 file limitation and it no longer sends just the changed part of files… —- so its slower and less effective for me.
Better yet they are about as responsive as Microsoft for tech support now… I use to get to exchange emails with Michael… I don’t know where he is now.
Bryant
If Folder share was sold to microsoft and Google has desktop 3 (for Free!!!) as their file sharing solution all the midgets (such as Beinsync) are bound to be out of the market by summer.
It’s pretty easy to solve microsoft monopoly problems.
Get a mac.
At time of writing, Mac clients have been unable to connect to Foldershare for the past 24 hours. PC clients are fine. Discuss.
I’ve encountered this Mac client issue too. I’m trying to get discussion going at
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=3367363
If you have any ideas, please don’t hesitate to offer them. This is really messing with my life.