Humble Bundle - Ongoing deals

[Jason]

I've mentioned Humble Bundle before. You can do a search to see my other mentions. Basically, it's a place to get deals on software, books, audio books, online services and games. They have a store (mostly games in it) but they also have ongoing deals, about once a week.

Their weekly deals (which are actually good for 2 weeks), have prices from $1-$20 typically. Even if you pay only a dollar (USD), you get 2-4 items, sometimes more. I usually pay that even if I only want one of the items. I'm quoting in US dollars but you can choose at the website what currency you prefer.

I don't usually want all the items in a tier but I'll get it if there is at least one item I like that has value that is equal to or more than the item. Oh, and the money you give is actually donated to a cause, the companies that make the items you get and the Humble Bundle site, but there is a sliding scale that lets you decide how much goes to each.

They offer software for Windows (boo! hiss!) and Macs but they also have cross-platform software and games that work on Android or Linux, too. Remember you can always run the software in a Windows virtual guest.

You can check the website for what they're offering right now to get an idea. But it costs nothing to sign-up for their newsletter and they'll let you know the deals that week. Sometimes they even offer something free if you're a newsletter subscriber.

I've bought many ebooks, graphic novels, software and games over the years. They offer many cross-platform programs and different formats for audiobooks/ebooks. Here are some examples of a few things I've received over the years that might interest you guys:

LastPass (used to renew my subscription at a cheaper rate than normal)
Private Internet Access VPN (gave to a friend)
SpiderOak One Backup - $20 USD for an annual subscription with cloud backup for 2 TB of data (normally $129 USD)
Prey tracking software - for device recovery whether lost or stolen
Windows backup subscriptions and utility software

Subscribe to the newsletter to get alerts of upcoming deals. If you have any questions, let me know here.


Disclaimer: I really like Humble Bundle, because of the special deals but especially that the purchase goes to a good cause. So I'd recommend them regardless. But I do benefit if you subscribe to the newsletter. I receive $10.50 to my wallet for software purchases there or future bundles. So please use this link above if you wish to subscribe. I really appreciate it. I hope you can find something useful.

Take care, and stay safe!

[fox]

Well you happened to mention three things that potentially interest me: lastpass, SpiderOak and PIA. I already have PIA and other than the fact that I have to turn it off every time I send an email, I really like it. I got it for a good price (I can't remember how or where), and locked in for two years.

The one concern I have about these deals is when the good price is for a limited time subscription. If you take SpiderOak for example, $20US is a great price, but I wouldn't want to pay $129US annually after that to maintain it, and changing over to another system is a big pain when you have it on multiple devices. Recent example: Dropbox. I've been using it for years to keep my currently used and most regularly used files automatically synced and readily accessible on my computers, tablets and phone. Dropbox is great for this because it has a sync client for Linux, MacOS, Windows, iOS and Android. And it was free for 2GB storage, which is all I need for the use I make of it. To get more paid subscriptions, they recently restricted its use to only three devices, and while they grandfathered in devices that were already on their system, you have to go to their lowest paid subscription ($13/mo) to use the synchronization feature with any new "devices". But if you're like me and upgrade distros and move them around, those changes require adding another "device", and you have to have less than three to do so. I would have paid $2 or $3 monthly for the unlimited device feature, but certainly not over $100 annually.

I stewed over this for days before coming to my present solution, which is to stop using Dropbox as my sync client.  Instead, I made a new folder in Google Drive (which also works on all devices and is free up to 15GB) called "Drop Zone". Now I use Drop Zone instead of Dropbox for the current and regularly used files. I give this example to make the point that while a good short-term deal on a subscription is nice, don't do it unless you're prepared to pay the regular price when the deal expires.

[Jason]

Well you happened to mention three things that potentially interest me: lastpass, SpiderOak and PIA. I already have PIA and other than the fact that I have to turn it off every time I send an email, I really like it. I got it for a good price (I can't remember how or where), and locked in for two years.

The one concern I have about these deals is when the good price is for a limited time subscription. If you take SpiderOak for example, $20US is a great price, but I wouldn't want to pay $129US annually after that to maintain it, and changing over to another system is a big pain when you have it on multiple devices.

Can't do anything about the pain but you don't have to stay with their 2 TB plan. They have other lower-priced plans with differing pricing tiers - $6/month for 150 GB, for example ($69 annually). All the plans have unlimited devices. And for switching, it's relatively easy. Just install it, choose what you want to backup and leave the computer while it does it. 150 GB is a hell of a lot more storage than 15 GB. But they don't recommend you backup ISO or large video files (i.e. files over 1 GB) because they take much longer to backup and if there's a snafu with the connection, it has to start again. But you can do it. I backup all my data on Windows and Linux to it except for videos and ISOs.

[Jason]

I forgot to add that unlike Dropbox and Google Drive, SpiderOak One Backup uses full encryption on the files with zero knowledge. They explain their privacy in this way:

We built our products from the ground up with end-to-end encryption because we believe you shouldn't have to blindly trust anyone. When you have something worth protecting, privacy and security are everything. Your data is yours, and should always be in your control. Encryption should not sacrifice usability.

We call this No Knowledge, and it's the foundation of our products. We have No Knowledge of your password, any data stored on our servers, or the metadata associated with your files.

That's what attracted me to SpiderOak in the first place, that encryption and security. Dropbox encrypts the files on their servers but employees (unless they changed it) have their own password that they can use to your view your files or decrypt them for customer service related issues. I don't think that Google Drive encrypts their files at all. The SpiderOak employees can't see what you have, just how much storage space you take up in total from each device and the final total.

When I had an issue with an old device not being removed, tech support walked me through it how to fix it. But they couldn't fix it for me because they don't have access to the files. I had to setup a new trial account and then they changed my account status to the top tier (2 TB). I had to re-upload my files again, unfortunately because of the bizarre bug I was experiencing. But I just left the computer for a few hours and it was done.

Their customer support is excellent. The techs might give you a template answer in the beginning to answer your question but if it's involved, you just write back and they engage with you. They also appear to use the same tech person throughout your issue which is helpful. The only time that tech support took more than 24 hours was when it was Christmas and the tech took the day off. But she was back the very next day, or maybe doing tech support from home.

All this is getting away from Humble Bundle though. I haven't seen that SpiderOak deal for a while but it could come back again. But I can't promise it. That's why I suggest signing up for the newsletter because then it will list the bundles as they appear so you can see if something catches your eye. Or just check the website every week.

I often see security products and other apps, some of which are Linux. 1Password has popped up a few times which is cross-platform. I've seen another VPN company come up, too. I think I mentioned one bundle that had a VPN in it at one time to you.

Btw, I used to have Dropbox. I think I got up to 5 GB through referrals and such. It was very handy but One Backup has many more features but you can still do sharing of files and syncing of them. Backups are separate from syncing. Like with Dropbox, there is a folder you drop files into. And every device with the client will sync that file so they have it, too. Or at least see it, which is the case in devices with low amounts of storage like Android or iPhones. You can see the file listing but can't access the file until you choose to download it. Otherwise, you'd fill up storage or you'd blow through your data plan.

[fox]

What is Backup One?

[ssfc72]

Mike, would you make this solution. to create a Drop Zone folder in you Google Drive, as a new topic in the Forums, as a way to get around Dropbox restricting their free storage syncing to only 3 devices?
I resorted to creating 2 Dropbox accounts, to get around this number of devices limitation.

I stewed over this for days before coming to my present solution, which is to stop using Dropbox as my sync client.  Instead, I made a new folder in Google Drive (which also works on all devices and is free up to 15GB) called "Drop Zone". Now I use Drop Zone instead of Dropbox for the current and regularly used files. I give this example to make the point that while a good short-term deal on a subscription is nice, don't do it unless you're prepared to pay the regular price when the deal expires.

[fox]

The problem with your solution is that if you make a change on one device in one of your accounts, it only shows up on three of your devices, not all of them. The only way I can see that working is if you have the exact same files in both accounts and every time you make a change in one, you copy it to the other. My solution is a lot simpler, but as Jason points out, Google files aren't encrypted (unless you encrypt them yourself before putting them in Google Drive).

Note: I did make a new topic on Dropbox in the Linux and Android applications forum.

[Jason]

What is Backup One?

Oops, I meant One Backup, the SpiderOak product. I'll fix that in the text.

[Jason]

Right now, one of the Humble Bundle includes a VPN (Encrypt.me) license for a year (normally $99/year) along with a 6-month subscription to 1Password (normally $48 USD/year). Encrypt.me doesn't work in Linux, though but does support Android along with Windows, Mac and iOS. You will also get WordPerfect Office X9 (who knew they were still around?).

The price for this top tier is $28.50 USD. There are other productivity apps at lower tiers which you also get. It's the Work Remote bundle.