Dropbox - Never leave your files behind again

I'm pretty damn excited by the long-awaited public launch of Dropbox, an online file storage service. Well, it's more than that. It's a service that allows you to store, share and synchronize your files, either on the web, or as a 'dropbox' folder on your computer. They offer a nice chunk of space - 2 Gigabytes, which to me is more than enough for the things I would usually store in these services.

It might sound like just another online file storage site, but it really is not. It's ridiculously easy to use. Once you install their client software and create an account with them, your computer will have a special folder, where you can just drop files in and they will automatically be synced on your account. No need to do any manual syncing or waiting for a timed sync to occur. It'll happen totally transparent from your regular workflow. Provided you have a fast Internet connection, the synchronization process is virtually instantaneous. Then you can either grab the files from a web interface, or by installing and configuring the client in another computer. It's that damn easy. Take a look at the tour they have on their site.

I must admit, I was a bit skeptical about this service after I read about it in TechCrunch earlier this year. I thought it wouldn't be anything special compared to any other site that provides similar services. However, after reading more and more about it, the curiosity got the best of me. I scrounged for an invite and eventually got one. I signed up, but to be honest I never used it much. I only have access to Mac and Linux computers at the moment, and Dropbox was Windows and Mac only, so I was rather limited as to where I could use it.

However, the excitement arrived yesterday, when not only I read that Dropbox launched publicly, but they also released a Linux version of their client software! I immediately downloaded the client at work (laptop using Ubuntu 8.04), created my account. and it worked just as it did on the Mac. I started transferring files and got them when I arrived home. Everything went without a hitch. I'm now finding more and more uses for Dropbox, particularly work-related files that I can access at home.

Kudos to the entire Dropbox team for putting out some quality work.