Just Cache the whole damn thing
If I tell backup and synch to download everything, I have a "Drive" (application) replacement, right? So I guess this doesn't affect me, good.
The issue is this statement in the article: “allows you to quickly access all of your Google Drive files on demand, directly from your computer, meaning you use almost none of your hard drive space and spend less time waiting for files to sync.”
How can it not use hard drive space but also spend less time synching? I assume it only means "synching" as in "I uploaded 5GB of files to Drive via PC A, now I have to wait for those to download to PC B".
Because I can guarantee you that if you're normally used to all files being locally available, having to try to pull-down a previously unloaded presentation in front of management or customers, you WILL notice the wait time.
And how will it save disk space in the long run? Won't I eventually cache most things if I choose to use them? Will it eventually decide it's smarter than me and deletecleanup my local offline cache? How could it possibly know what I'll need the next time I'm offline (for that matter, can I even know that)?
Seems if I wanted to think about managing my Drive files 10x more than I already do, this is a great update. Otherwise, this is Google Drive trying to be something it's not.