Ubuntu One (Canonical's cloud storage) is being shut down June 1st, 2014. However, users of the service will have access to their content until July 31st, 2014, at which point the servers will be shut down, and all content will be rendered inaccessible.
From the blog, Jane Silber (CEO Canonical) writes:
Today we are announcing plans to shut down the Ubuntu One file services. This is a tough decision, particularly when our users rely so heavily on the functionality that Ubuntu One provides. However, like any company, we want to focus our efforts on our most important strategic initiatives and ensure we are not spread too thin.
Our strategic priority for Ubuntu is making the best converged operating system for phones, tablets, desktops and more. In fact, our user experience, developer tools for apps and scopes, and commercial relationships have been constructed specifically to highlight third party content and services (as opposed to our own); this is one of our many differentiators from our competitors. Additionally, the free storage wars aren't a sustainable place for us to be, particularly with other services now regularly offering 25GB-50GB free storage. If we offer a service, we want it to compete on a global scale, and for Ubuntu One to continue to do that would require more investment than we are willing to make. We choose instead to invest in making the absolute best, open platform and to highlight the best of our partners' services and content.
As of today, it will no longer be possible to purchase storage or music from the Ubuntu One store. The Ubuntu One file services will not be included in the upcoming Ubuntu 14.04 LTS release, and the Ubuntu One apps in older versions of Ubuntu and in the Ubuntu, Google, and Apple stores will be updated appropriately. The current services will be unavailable from 1 June 2014; user content will remain available for download until 31 July, at which time it will be deleted.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 05 2014, @06:08PM
Move everything the cloud! It's the greatest thing ever!
Fucking idiots deserve what they got by trusting "the cloud".
(Score: 5, Funny) by nitehawk214 on Saturday April 05 2014, @07:12PM
As an astronomer, I agree. Fuck the clouds!
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Saturday April 05 2014, @07:48PM
Ugh, that was cold and rather unsatisfying. Had to finish the job myself.
(Score: 3, Funny) by ngarrang on Sunday April 06 2014, @01:47AM
*turns off cloud making machine*
Oh, I'm sorry, was my experiment getting in the way of your fancy telescope? The radio astronomers down the street have never complained.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by crutchy on Saturday April 05 2014, @11:18PM
there might be a hidden story in here, not that we'll likely ever know for sure.
canonical knows how jittery the open source community is about the nsa.
maybe they got a knock on the door by a man in black and afterwards they thought... "fuck this, if our users ever found out we had an nsa back door there might be a huge revolt against the company as a whole... maybe this isn't worth risking our livelihoods on... time to shut 'er down".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 06 2014, @07:53AM
That's very believable
(Score: 5, Insightful) by rduke15 on Saturday April 05 2014, @06:23PM
So that would mean that if I decide to upgrade to Ubuntu 14.04 (rather than switching to Mint or plain Debian), I won't have to uninstall all that crap, as I had to with 12.04. If I remember correctly, it was not easy to remove, because it would also remove other stuff.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Waraqa on Saturday April 05 2014, @07:15PM
The truth is "We want to focus our efforts on our most profitable products".
This action was expected because Ubuntu One has much less ads (if any) than other competitors and it doesn't seem to make noticeable revenue for their business.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 05 2014, @07:20PM
FYI: Jane Silber is a she.
(Score: 1) by Waraqa on Saturday April 05 2014, @07:27PM
I didn't pay attention. Thanks for correction.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by lajos on Saturday April 05 2014, @08:20PM
Is the lawsuit from Brendan Eich for discrimination. He will win and that will pretty much be the end of that enterprise.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 05 2014, @09:17PM
He chose to step down. Who is going to sue? Himself?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Nerdfest on Saturday April 05 2014, @08:52PM
I use Ubuntu One on occasion, partially because it's one of the few storage sites not blocked by many corporate firewalls. It was a good service while it lasted but there are many replacements. Have you tried SpiderOak? [spideroak.com] Yes, that's a referral ... more space is better. These guys do security better than everyone else I've seen. When you use these services though, you need to realize that you may need a fallback plan at some point. They're not guaranteed to be there forever, or even available when you need them.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Saturday April 05 2014, @09:10PM
Agreed, Spideroak is the most secure service I've encountered. Disclaimer, I'm a paying customer.
Ubuntu One never had a chance. I installed it and proved it worked, but I never has a realistic use for it, nor any reason to believe it would last as a service.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Informative) by RobotLove on Saturday April 05 2014, @09:19PM
My favorite parts of SpiderOak? Changing a file and having no idea when it will sync to my other computers. Right now? Maybe. In 30 minutes? Maybe. Never? Maybe.
I want to like SpiderOak. I want to like it so hard. I've even tried to use it as my main sync tool several times. But I always leave it after a few days.
Currently on BtSync, and pretty happy. Unlimited space, reasonably deterministic sync times.
(Score: 4, Informative) by frojack on Saturday April 05 2014, @09:38PM
It syncs on an interval YOU set, on each machine, so if you choose large intervals on different machines you can expect odd syncing. Its a polling scheme, not a push scheme.
The key is short check times, on all machines.
I use it mostly for backup, and very little sync.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by lajos on Sunday April 06 2014, @05:02AM
"These guys do security better than everyone else I've seen."
Based on what exactly? You looked through the code? You examined their govt contracts?
Or you just advertising?
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Sunday April 06 2014, @11:18PM
At least with SpiderOak, you have the encryption key and not them. Also, I didn't say they were perfect, just better than everyone else I've seen. Admittedly, the bar is pretty low as their competition pretty much suck.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Murdoc on Saturday April 05 2014, @10:15PM
And here we have reason number two for not trusting your data with online services: you never know when they are going to go out of business, or "change direction", or something similar.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 06 2014, @01:11PM
in the future I will always think about Canonical and brown clouds when I do a number two.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 06 2014, @01:05PM
I remember protests against misusing the name Ubuntu for other things that is not the operative system*. I'm glad they finally have come to senses and stop. (Too bad that Ubuntu is not something with good associations today though, so I guess it is too late?)
* for example http://www.chuckfrain.net/blog/2009/05/18/ubuntu-o ne-thoughts/#comment-285 [chuckfrain.net]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 06 2014, @01:25PM
Perhaps it is time to mark this bug as fixed now?/ 375345 [launchpad.net]
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntuone-servers/+bug