Does anyone have a cloud service that works seamlessly across Windows and Linux? So far I've tried OneDrive, iCloud, pCloud, Filen, Mega, Dropbox and Box. Nothing meets my simple needs.
Thursday, August 28, 2025
I want one that ‘just works’. I want to be able to work in Linux or Windows in my dualbooting laptop with my data in its own partition, so LibreOffice on Windows and LibreOffice on Linux are accessing the same files. Then I want those files from that partition to sync to the cloud, whether I’m using Linux or Windows.
Not feeding AI, and keeping my stuff private in general would be great, but at this point I’m ready to settle for ‘Just Works’ which seems to be beyond the abilities of any cloud services.
Here’s my experience:
- OneDrive: takes over Windows and doesn’t have proper sync on Linux
- iCloud: no integration with Linux, just a standalone app
- Google: uses weird strings of characters for filenames in Linux to work with them, and this screws up access from other systems. Also, it’s Google.
- @pCloud : in Linux, doesn’t automount, and when it does mount, frequently doubles up. Flakey integration with file managers.
- Filen: flakiness in general and similar mounting problems. Plus the company doesn’t seem the stablest.
- Mega: persistently duplicating files by uploading them from both Linux and Windows, effectively halving my available space and introducing syncing issues. Their support is currently being slow and obtuse.
- Dropbox: horrendously expensive
- Box: no integration with Linux, just a standalone app
I want to use Linux, because it’s a Good Thing, but it seems to be the weak link here. If I didn’t use Linux, then OneDrive, iCloud, Google and Box would be fine. Probably the others too.
And no, not gonna self host or spend ages tweaking bash scripts on Linux. That sounds like even more of a nightmare.
#Linux