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How I use DropBox

On popular request, here is how I use DropBox. In case you had never heard about it, DropBox gives you a "web folder" (a-la Mobile.me) which is synchronized between your different machines. DropBox works on Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. You can use it to share files with friends too (which is useful for sharing... well... Linux distros and Stallman-compliant software).

You can get a 2 GB free account which is way sufficient for most usages, but switching to a paid account is certainly a good idea if you can afford to. I should also mention that the service is rock-solid, and the software clients work seamlessly in the background.

There are a bunch of files that I need to share between my laptops at home and at work, and DropBox is just way better than a USB key or a geeky rsync-based solution (or worse, a Subversion-based one). The only thing is that I never store sensitive informations in my DropBox folder, as this data is to be hosted in the clound, and you never know what may happen to it.

Whenever we need to exchange stuff with friends, we simply drop something into our shared archive. It can't really be any simpler. Another nicety about DropBox is that it stores revisions of your files, so that you can always revert a deletion or switch back to a previous version. It is not as powerful as a true version control system, but it does a fine job as long as you spot where the option is (only in the web interface).

But the true geeky usage that I have is when combined with Git (or any other DVCS of your choice). The power of DVCS lies in the fact that they store the whole history locally and as such, they do not require a server. You can thus store your Git branches in a DropBox folder, or put a symlink in it. This way you get the benefits of both DropBox and Git (or Hg, Bzr, ...): powerful VCS, automatic remote backups and synchronization between workstations.

How about yourself? How do you use DropBox?

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