Dropbox: Online Backup Service for Mac, Windows & Linux
We’ve been testing Dropbox now for over 3 months within our company predominantly on Apple Macs. Our tests have been used in our working environment in real life situations. After the 3 months, we’re pretty happy with the results and have very positive review of Dropbox.
Some nice features of Dropbox is a super simple desktop application that on our Macs integrates into the top toolbar and you don’t even notice it’s there so it’s very unobtrusive almost like it’s part of the operating system which is really nice.
To use Dropbox, you signup on their website and download the appropriate desktop client for your computer. Dropbox is available for Windows, Macs and Linux. Dropbox is one of the few online backup solutions that caters for the Linux community which is another nice touch from the company.
Dropbox easily syncs files online and to your computers.
While there are other online backup providers that allow you to sync any folder you choose, Dropbox is about having one folder (Dropbox) that you put your files in and everything in that folder gets synced with the online Dropbox cloud and your other computers you have authorized to have sync with your Dropbox. You can even access these from your mobile web browser. We tested Dropbox mobile online using our iPhone web browser and for our tests it worked well even though it was using a mobile browser and not a native iPhone application.
If you’ve ever used any type of version control, you’ll find Dropbox does the same thing automatically but is aimed at the everyday user. This allow you to go back and retrieve previous versions of files if you need to. We also found the syncing to be impressively fast from one computer to another and is easier than sending emails with attachments.
Easy File Sharing.
You can share any folder folder provided it’s within your Dropbox right from your computers file viewer. On our Macs, we simply navigated to our Dropbox and then to a folder we wanted to share. Right clicking the folder provides you a menu saying ’share this folder’ which when clicked, takes you to the Dropbox website allowing you to add emails of those you want to share with.
Fully Automatic Backup & File Syncing.
Not only does Dropbox provide an easy way for you to backup your files, the process really is automatic. Simply dropping files into your Dropbox starts the backup and file syncing process. It’s that easy and it’s fast too! All this backing up and file syncing is fully secured on the Dropbox servers in the cloud and also gives you a way to go back to earlier versions or to get back accidently deleted files.
Main Features of Dropbox
- Sync files of any size or type
- Share large files and photos easily
- Automatic online backup of files online
- Track and undo changes to files
- Never e-mail yourself a file again
- Keep files synced across multiple computers
- Share files easily with others
- Works with Windows, Mac and Linux
Dropbox System Requirements
- At least 512mb of RAM
- Free space on your computer matching your dropbox storage space.
- Windows XP or Vista both 32/64 bit
- Mac OS X Tiger (10.4) or later. Snow Leopard currently using beta client.
- Ubuntu 7.10+ and Fedora Core 9+. We’ve also had users report success running Dropbox on Debian, OpenSUSE, Arch Linux, Gentoo as well as several other distributions of Linux.
- iPhone/iTouch app coming soon
Selecting and Dropbox Plan
Basic Free Account - The free Dropbox account comes with 2GB of space that you can use for as long as you like. You can increase your free account by inviting your friends. Each friend who signs up gives you another 250mb up to 3GB total quota.
Pro 20 (20gb) – $6.99 per month
Pro 50 (50gb) – $9.99 per month
Pro 100 (100gb) – $19.99 per month
Final Thoughts about Dropbox
Overall Dropbox is a really solid online backup platform providing a simple way to backup important files and files you need to share easily without the need to email attachements.
What we liked best
- One of our favorite things about Dropbox is it’s unobtrusive nature. Even when you have it installed it just feels like part of your operating system so it’s not distracting in any way.
- Works on Linux too.
What we think they can do better
- While Dropbox is a great online backup solution, we think their pricing and plan structure isn’t as competitive as some other similar solutions.
Related posts:
