Desktop synchronisation
For home desktop backup and synchronisation, I have been using a combination of Foldermatch and Carbonite. Carbonite offers unlimited online backup storage for a single machine for less than $60 a year, and Foldermatch allows me to synchronise folders across machines. Although neither works directly with Linux, I can run Foldermatch on a Wintel desktop and synchronise files from my Linux Netbooks, then backup the whole Wintel machine in the cloud with Carbonite.
However, it is a bit clunky, and relies on all machines being connected on my home network.
Now I am trying out Dropbox, a service that synchronises folders using Amazon cloud storage. It runs on Windows, Linux and Mac, and even offers 2Gb storage for free. At $120 per year for 50Gb, it is still pretty good value, and is running nicely and unobtrusively on my Wintel and Linux machines. The big drawback is that it points at a single parent directory on each machine, though I suspect that some smart symbolic linking can get you around that limitation.
One Response to “Desktop synchronisation”
Dropbox is great, if a little slow on uploads sometimes. They have a nice free iPhone application too.
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