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Minus: share large files and photos with this stylish cloud hosting app

August 11, 2011 By 8 Comments

If I’ve seen one file sharing web service in the past few months I’ve seen a about twenty. But this one stands out from the pack in several respects; most notably its (ad-free) stylishness and support for multiple platforms and devices.

Minus is a file hosting service that will let you upload and share large (or small) files online; it will let you upload as many files as you want provided that the largest individual file is a max of 50 megs (which, rumor has it, will be upped to 100 megs soon) 200 megs (as of Aug 15 2011).

Files can be shared publicly or privately, and they never expire. Minus lets you share images in automatically generated galleries, and will let you and your friends follow each other, Twitter-style, to keep up with each other’s shared files.

Files can be accessed in the browser, within a desktop client, on the iPhone or any iOS, Android, and other devices.

Freewaregenius 5-Star Pick

Minus Screenshot5 web appMinus Screenshot1 tray menu

PROS:

  • Minus Screenshot2 desktop toolDesktop integration: you will seldom encounter a better suite of desktop tools to connect to and manage your files in the cloud, including a third party appthat puts Minus in the Windows send-to menu. Check out the desktop app in the screenshot to the right
  • No ads: unlike other hosting services, that bombard you with ads on multiple pages. Not sure if they will come eventually, but I get the feeling that if/when they did, they will conform to the general stylishness of the web app.
  • Drag and drop: related to “desktop integration” above. Drag and drop files to the Minus’ tray icon to upload, or launch the desktop app and drag files to folders or albums that are already there.
  • No upload limit: as long as the files are within the max size allowed (50 megs as of this writing, although in my tests of this service the max upload limit seems more like 45 megs or so). This means that you can pretty much share everything you want, as long as you create spanned zipped archives that split larger files for you.
  • Device support: iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone (so far). The iPhone app leaves a lot to be desired though, lacking gallery-style thumbnails and
  • Galleries: switch from grid view (below left) to linear/carousel view (below right). Users can post comments on all links.

Minus Screenshot3 photo gridMinus Screenshot4 carousel

  • Upload screenshots: seems to be quite a fashionable function these days, for some reason. Minus has its own built in take-a-screenshot-and-upload function.
  • Browser extensions: are available for Chrome and Firefox.

CONS:

  • iPhone app: is text heavy, lacks thumbnails for images, and is very un-iPhone like and needs to be redesigned, methinks.
  • 200 meg limit: [edited 8/23/2011] the upper limit has been changed twice from 50 to 100 to 200 megs.
  • Pause/abort uploading: once you start uploading via the desktop app, you cannot pause or abort (short of shutting the program down). You also cannot manage uploaded files via the desktop client, in terms of moving them from one folder to another.

The verdict: Minus is in altogether different class from most file sharing services (especially the ad-heavy sites that you might typically think of).

Personally, I am very keen on the desktop integration, which is why I like this one; I also like that I can access my files on my iPhone, and that I can publish them to their own URL in a single click. And despite being a big Dropbox aficionado (and the overlap in their functionality) Minus will nonetheless hold a permanent spot on my desktop, if only for the fact that (a) unlike Dropbox, there is no limit to the amount of files you can upload, (b) the fact that it can be used as a permanent file repository, rather than a Dropbox style cloud folder sync, and (c) I like the “social site” style functions, such as following other users/being followed, and that users can comment on all published links/URLs, etc.

Overall, an excellent service and highly recommended.

Version tested: 1.5 (on Windows)

Compatibility: Multiplatform desktop client (Windows, Mac, Linux; 32 bit or 64 bit); Apps for iOS, Android, Windows Phone (with more to come); Firefox and Chrome extensions.

Visit the Minus home page to sign up. Also visit the tools page to download desktop client.


 
 
 
Samer Kurdi

Samer Kurdi

Has been reviewing software since 2006 when he started Freewaregenius.com
Samer Kurdi

@freewaregenius

August 11, 2011
Samer Kurdi
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  • Filtereyez

    I really like this and although I got the FF extension installed without hassle, what i really wanted was the desktop application but keep running into errors on trying to install it. Not sure if anyone on here can help but what is happening is that the installer downloads the microsoft redistibutable package and on installing I get an error. So I went to Ms and downloaded the package to install manually and it also errors and tells me that the reason is because I have a newer version of the package installed on my computer – does this mean that the Minus desktop application is not up to date? Any work around for this?

  • Filtereyez

    Ok let me apologize first for the triple post above – browser said site was not responding and like a dummy i hit the back button and post button (3x) :/ Anyway I think i found a solution : i just went into the control panel of windows and into add and remove programs and uninstalled microsoft redistributable 2010 and then installed Minus again and it installed just fine as well as installed the new MS package. :) Everything seems to work fine thus far, just wanted to share in case anyone else runs into the same problem.

    • Samer

      @ Filtereyez: I removed the dupe posts; don’t worry about it it is something that has to do with my RackSpaceCloud hosting (I think), and very frequently happens.

      Anyway I am glad you found a solution!

  • http://scifiandgadgets.com/ Morely the IT Guy

    50 megs is not a large file. 1 gig or larger is a large file. I’d even call 500 megs a large file. But I have an SD card valued at about twenty-five cents (US) that holds 128 megs, and that’s *tiny*.

  • NetFlexx

    Meanwhile they are at 200M per file. +1

  • Samer

    @ Morely: 50 megs is fairly small; but is now increased to 200 megs as NefFlexx noted. I changed the text above to reflect this.

    However, even at 200 megs it may also be considered small, I know.

    What I meant by ‘large files’ is the possibility to break up a large file into chunks via a zip or rar archiver, and share large files that way.

    For me, this is actually better that sharing a whole 700 meg file for example, because connection glitches will not cause the whole operation to fail, on the one hand, but mostly because I would rather be able to upload as many 50 or 200 meg files that want, rather than be able to upload 700 or 1 GIG files and be capped at 5/10/x megs overall.

  • http://minus.com John Xie

    Thanks for writing about Minus, please check out http://minus.com we have new information and 2GB per file limit now!

    John
    http://min.us/john

  • Jason

    Minus definitely seems to be in a class by itself… The interface is clean and smooth. It looks like a good solution for long term file storage or image hosting, as it provides short links in just about every conceivable format.

    Some of the newer file sharing services I’ve discovered like Bighugefile.com don’t have as many bells and whistles, but the simpler interface is sometimes useful when you need to share files in a hurry. Plus, Bighugefile.com lets you share files up to 1GB. Thanks for the great write-up. I’ll give Minus a try as well.