Bitcasa has released their promised headless Linux client. They are also sticking to their plans of only offering it to people that are on the new plans, which is not going over well on the Bitcasa blog, Twitter and Facebook.
@Bitcasa Thanks, just making sure you really were going back on your word before I cancelled my contract. Bait 'n' Switch
— Digital Wrangler (@CyberCowboy) December 12, 2013
In the Bitcasa blog post announcing the new Linux client they also make mention that the reason this client is not available for people on the grandfathered pricing plans is because of “a small number of users exploiting the technology in severe violation of our terms of service”. Seems to me that if you break the terms of service, whether on the old pricing plans or the new ones, your account would be cancelled.
I would love to give you an overview of the new Linux client, but unfortunately I cannot. I am on the old pricing plan and have no plans to switch to one of the new plans. The Linux client is one of the reasons I signed up for Bitcasa originally but since they announced the new pricing plans I have already made alternate arrangements on my Linux machine. I will keep my Bitcasa account until February when it expires and will likely just delete it then since I no longer trust the company.
Speaking of deleting a Bitcasa account I also wanted to highlight these very interesting images I came across of a Bitcasa support live chat. These screenshots were taken by a Bitcasa user, he posted the link to these images on the Bitcasa Facebook announcement for their Linux client. In the event they delete the post is a screen capture of it.
Here is his chat log with Bitcasa support about his account. In the end Bitcasa support deleted his account with only his name and email.
This is rather disturbing if it is really that easy to delete an account. It really would not be difficult for anyone to pretend to be someone else and have their account deleted.
I would love to say something positive about Bitcasa, but at this point I don’t know if they can turn around the PR nightmare they have created. They have clearly misunderstood their early adopters and continue to upset the users that helped them grow. Perhaps these huge changes to their plans and promises were brought about by their top tier investors, including Horizons Ventures, Pelion Venture Partners, Samsung Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz demanding more return. I can’t see how they are going to make any money though now that they are driving off their best word of mouth users. I guess time will tell but I have a feeling this is not going to end well for Bitcasa.
Anyone tried the new Linux client? What are your impressions?
Want to know more about Bitcasa? Read our complete Bitcasa review for more information.
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