For anyone wanting a decent way to transfer files between computers, especially between home and work, or alternatively to show friends and family some new photos (weddings, holidays etc.), Dropbox seems to be a quick, neat and elegant way of doing this for you.
Dropbox gives you space on the Web. For free, you can get 2GB, and if you recommend new users, anyone taking up your recommendation earns 250MB of extra free space, as does the recommender, until you reach a maximum of 8GB. For the more well-heeled and corporate customers, there is an option to upgrade to 50GB of web space or 100GB for a monthly fee (US$9.99 and 19.99 respectively).
So, why Dropbox?
Your data is held secure, and only you have access to it provided you keep your computer login account secure. You install a utility (download and install is quick and simple both on Linux and Windows - I've done them both!) and this gives you a folder in which to store your documents for transferring.
In Linux the folder is named "Dropbox" and appears in your Home folder.
In Win XP it is named "My Dropbox" and appears in the "My Documents" folder.
This is basically a folder which transfers anything dragged into it to your webspace. However, the data is also held on your computer, so that any files in it are accessible when you're offline! When you go online, the files are synchronised so that any newer versions of the files end up in your webspace and are then automatically synchronised onto your other Dropbox machines when you next go online.
In this way, you can transfer work in progress between any number of computers which you have synchronised to your account. It means that you can work on the same file on one or more computer without the hassle of e-mailing files, using pen drives and all that palaver. You can drag-and-drop or simply save files into the Dropbox folder and all the work is done!
Inside the Dropbox folder is contained a sub-folder called "Photos." This can be used for sharing pictures with your nearest and dearest without much hassle. The way to do it is this:
(1) Create a new folder within the "Photos Folder" (eg titled "Holidays")
(2) Drag-and-drop any photos you want to share into the folder
(3) Right click the "Holidays" folder and hover the pointer on Dropbox on the menu
(4) Click "Copy Public Gallery Link"
(5) Paste this into an e-mail, forum etc. where you want the folder to be shared.
Hey presto, people can view a slideshow of your photos with very little hassle on your part, and to me it seems much easier and more elegant than using either Flickr or Photobucket.
Check out my test gallery here:
http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/12371385/1/DropboxTest?h=4f9c0e
I've had no trouble with it using either Linux (my main machine) or Windows XP (a church laptop). They seem to work well both online and offline and the transfer times have been quite nippy. I'd happily recommend it to anyone who does a bit of transferring files between computers, or who regularly shares photos with friends and family.
Any questions, comments are welcome. And if you want to try it.. let me invite you. You'll get an extra 250MB to play with (as will I
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