From what I recall, quite a few people have heard of, or even use Dropbox.
Dropbox is similar to Apple’s iDisk, in the respect that it is an online backup/data storage facility. The only difference is, dropbox will give you 2GB of free storage, just for signing up. There’s also an option to pay either $9.99 per month, or $99 per year, which will upgrade your storage capacity to 50GB. For me personally, I don’t (yet) need any more than the 2GB, though I may consider looking into the 50GB option in future.
What I like most about Dropbox is that it’s cross platform. For me this is fantastic, because I run Ubuntu (9.04 64 bit if you’re interested) on my desktop, and my laptop is an aluminum Macbook. Now I had the problem of somehow remembering to put things in the Dropbox directory so that they would get synced to the server and thus between my 2 machines.
Solving that problem was a lot easier than I could’ve expected. No thanks to my friend Gabby, who told me what he had done on IRC. Using
you can create soft links to the directories to/from the Dropbox directory, and any changes you make to that directory outside of the Dropbox directory, get automatically synced. Put simply, if I make any changes to something in ~/Documents, it automatically gets backed up/synced to Dropbox. Awesome!!
If you’re unsure of the syntax of
, as it is a little confusing, it’s the following:
And finally, if you want to join Dropbox because you haven’t already, following this link will (according to Dropbox) get you a little bit more space 
Edit: I’ve just been informed (thanks Matteo!) that the referral links don’t seem to be giving extra space any more. This is likely because Dropbox limits the amount they give out. Please feel free to use the link at the end of the post if you want, but don’t feel obliged to if you do want to sign up. Join Dropbox
#1 by aodhagan on April 18th, 2009
While dropbox is well know, I prefer SpiderOak. They have several features missing from dropbox (sync and share rooms), and they are also natively available on Ubuntu. Most importantly, they have a good security model to keep your data safe, even from them.
-aodhagan
#2 by Joe on April 18th, 2009
I’ve briefly looked into Spideroak. What do you mean they have features missing from dropbox?
Do you mean that Spideroak has features that aren’t in dropbox, or vice versa?
I know dropbox has a sharing folders option which allows you to share a folder with other users, though I haven’t looked into it that much yet
#3 by Misc on April 18th, 2009
Wait, if I use the link, I will get more space?
I think your last line should read
“…you haven’t already, following this link will (according to Dropbox) get *ME* a little bit more space”?
#4 by jldugger on April 18th, 2009
Fail.
The “target” is generally known as the thing you’re pointing the symlink at. So I think you’ve reversed it.
via the manpage
ln [OPTION]… [-T] TARGET LINK_NAME (1st form)
#5 by Joe on April 18th, 2009
Actually, from the Dropbox referrals page:
“Once your friend starts using Dropbox, you’ll both get extra space. Hooray!”
@ jldugger:
I was using OS X at the time of writing, so I used the OS X manpage. I’ve fixed that now though, thanks for point it out
#6 by antonio carlos jobim on April 18th, 2009
joe -T is in brackets because it’s optional. the -s switch has nothing to do with the target, it specifies that ln should make a (s)ymbolic link and not a hard link, which is the default.
have you ever even used ln b4??? lol looks like u fail script kiddie luser
#7 by Joe on April 18th, 2009
Antonio, I have used ln before a number of times actually.
The terms I described above to use ln were what I used in this specific instance.
#8 by matteo.zandi on April 18th, 2009
I just used your referral link! thanks!
#9 by Hugo Heden on April 18th, 2009
Still, you should been more straight forward and mention that you would get some extra storage yourself. Since you failed to do that, I don’t feel I can trust you, so I’ll specifically *not* use your link, though I’m otherwise pretty sure I would have.
#10 by Joe on April 18th, 2009
That’s a good point, duly noted.
And I appreciate your decision to not use that link. For what it’s worth, I no longer get extra storage for referrals, as there is a limit on the amount they give.
#11 by matteo.zandi on April 18th, 2009
you can use mine if you want to
https://www.getdropbox.com/referrals/NTk2NDM0Nzk
Matteo
#12 by Phil on May 3rd, 2009
If you sign up for dropbox by clicking the link Here 250mb will be added to both of our accounts plus the standard 2gigs. We both win!
#13 by Dougle on June 11th, 2009
I have had some difficulty with links in that i cant link out of the dropbox folder, most apps when they write there image,xml,db file unlink the files first, this is also the case with dropboxd:
~/.face -> ~/Dropbox/.face on two machines
If i change the image no probs dropbox syncs it but i move to the other machine and ~/Dropbox/.face is no longer a link, it’s a new file created in new disk space.
Any Ideas?
#14 by Joe on June 12th, 2009
Dougle, unfortunately I don’t really know why.
What I would recommend if you want to sync things outside the Dropbox folder, is to look in to symbolic links (these work on Linux/OS X…Windows’ method is slightly different).
Sorry I can’t be of any further help
#15 by BobK on November 21st, 2009
Here is another referral link for the extra 250MP with your new 2 gig Dropbox account if you need it.
https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTU2NTQ5MTk
#16 by Aaron on December 18th, 2009
Thought I would toss another referral link out there
https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTY1Njc5NTk