How Cross-Platform Sync Software Dropbox Changed My Life

I've dreamed for a long time of seamless, easy to use, cross-platform file backup and syncronization. Until recently, it was just a wish I thought would never come true. Then I found Dropbox.

What is Dropbox?

Dropbox is software that runs on Linux, Mac, and Windows computers, that allows the user to easily backup and syncronize software between all of their computers and the web. For instance, suppose you're working on a letter for grandma in Microsoft Word or OpenOffice.org. You're not finished yet, so you save it to your Dropbox folder on your desktop computer at home that runs Windows. Later, you're out at a coffee shop with your Mac laptop, and you want to work on your letter. You have Dropbox installed on your laptop, so when you open it up and connect to internet, you instantly see the letter you were working on at home appear in your Dropbox folder. You finish your letter, pack up your laptop, and head home. When you get home and open the file on your desktop computer to print, you find that it was automatically updated with your changes. Nice! But wait, but before you can press the print button, your hard drive fails, and you lose your work. Simultaneously, a random bolt of lightning strikes your laptop, frying all the data it contains. No worries! You head to your local library (they have some computers running Linux) where you log on to your Dropbox account at http://getdropbox.com. There, you're able to recover your file, print it, and send it to grandmother. This is nothing short of brilliant.

Even More Stuff You Can Do With Dropbox

Dropbox allows for the user to easily drop files in a "Public" folder. There, you can simply right click on file and get a public URL for the file that you can post on the web or send in email. This makes sharing file and making documents available for download a snap! Imagine how this could change the ways you work with friends, family and work associates.

Not only does Dropbox allow for easy file-sharing through public URLs and shared folders between Dropbox users, but Dropbox also tracks each change to the files in your Dropbox folder. Logging on the web interface and selecting a previous version of your file or document is simple and easy. Dropbox makes document collaboration a seamless, user friendly process. And you're not just limited to text, spreadsheets, or presentations. Any kind of file can be worked on in your Dropbox, from music files to graphic design projects. The possiblities for collaboration are truly staggering. And it's all securely backed up!

Things You Should Know About Dropbox

While Dropbox is currently free of charge, the portion of the software that monitors your files is not Free Software in the sense that it is free to modify and distribute, like the Firefox web browser or Pidgen IM software. It is not open source. So, if you have have strong moral objections to non-free-as-in-speech software, then Dropbox is probably not the best solution for you.

What Dropbox Did For Me

I no longer fuss with USB thumb drives to transfer files between my own computers. I always have an up-to-date set of all my documents on all my machines. Sharing files between my laptop and my wife's computer is a no-brainer, and it's simple for us to keep our shared documents in sync. I don't worry about messing up a file...if something happens, I know I can always revert to an earlier version from the Dropbox web interface. I am enjoying an unpresented level of freedom in where and how I interact with documents and project files, and I have the assurance that it's very unlikely I'll ever lose another document.

Think of what Dropbox could do for you.