Dropbox review
From BluSkyPedia
Dropbox is a very handy program and service that lets you keep a folder synchronized across multiple computers. It works on multiple platforms and is a much better way to move around medium sized files than emailing them back and forth. The files are also backed up to a server so you have the ability to get them back even if all of your computers are destroyed.
One of the things that sets Dropbox apart is its ease of use. You don't have to be a computer genius in order to understand how to use it. Once it is installed, it just works and there is very little technical knowledge required. You simply drop a file into the folder and it shows up on all the other computers.
Everyone can get a free account that will support up to 2 GB. For many people, this meets all of their needs. 2 GB is enough to move most documents and files back and forth that you are likely to need to email between your computers. It isn't enough to try to synchronize a large music, movie or photo collection however. If you need more space, you have two options. You can buy up to $100 for a reasonable yearly fee, or you can recommend the service to your friends and get additional space at 250 MB for each person who signs up. You can get up to 10 GB of free space this way which is pretty significant--especially considering it is free for life.
Dropbox also has some nice features when it comes to sharing files with other users. It has a built in slideshow feature for photos and a way to share files publicly with non-dropbox users. For more details on the additional features, take a look at this dropbox review.
Dropbox can be used in a variety of different ways. One of the more interesting uses I've seen is to allow two people to share the data file from an accounting program. They were using QuickBooks or something like that. They put the data file into dropbox so it stays synchronized on each of their computers. One person can use the file and work with the accounting software, but when they are done the file gets synchronized back to dropbox into the other person's computer. That is a little bit of risk in this. They can both work on at the same time without running into a collision of changes. This works out fine for them because neither of them are on the computer at the same time. One of their work in the morning, and the other does in the afternoon. As long as they don't forget to close the program they should be fine.
A lot of people find that dropbox prevents them from having to e-mail files back and forth. It's very easy to fill up your e-mail sent items with a bunch of large attachments. Dropbox lets you avoid this by keeping the file synchronized and helps keep you from getting in a situation where you have hundreds of copies of the same files floating around.
Some people use dropbox for backup. There is some way that this works well in some ways it doesn't. The biggest problem is that you can't help dropbox to regularly back up a folder that is not in dropbox. You can grab a file or folder and drop it in the box to make a backup but that relies on you mainly doing something each time. So dropbox works well if you have a few files you want to make sure you can have access to from somewhere else. It works well if you have an important paper you want to back up. It does not work very well when you try to back up a series of documents needed to happen automatically.
The other problem with using dropbox as a backup service is the limited size. You start off with 2 GB which is very convenient for transferring files and keeping them synchronize between two computers, but it doesn't work very well if you're trying to keep backups of lots of information. You can pay for more space, but there are other services that work a bit better for backing up all your files then using dropbox. The only way I can see it working well for a backup is if you keep all of your files in the box. If everything is in the box then you can just treat as your filesystem and it'll keep everything synchronized with the server and synchronize with other computers. It might work well in that respect but you'd have to have a pretty big claim. Even 100 GB plan probably wouldn't be enough for most people by the time you include their music library, pictures and movies.