Archive for September, 2009

Oh Live Mesh, We Hardly Knew Ye

September 25, 2009  (Jeffrey Kabbe)

I had been successfully* using Windows Live Mesh for about two weeks when IT happened. IT of course was Snow Leopard. I checked the list of incompatible apps for everything major. But somehow the Live Mesh announcement slipped past me.

Left without another solution, I decided to have another look at DropBox. I spent a few hours reading reviews and digging through their site to see if my original concerns were still valid. I wasn’t impressed with the site. It was hard to find information. And, seriously guys, in the two years since Leopard came out you couldn’t find time to do another screencast? Haven’t you introduced any new features in that time that are worth mentioning?

But after much research and lacking any other options, I decided to give DropBox a go. My experience so far has been quite positive. I have been able to locate my folder exactly where I wanted (not just in my Documents folder). Synchronization happens quite quickly and reliably. So far there have been no disappearing or duplicated files. And thankfully the icons in the folder aren’t decorated with that cheesy green checkmark. I ended up purchasing the Pro option because 2GB wasn’t quite enough for our use.

So I am quite happy with my decision to try DropBox. Thanks to everyone who suggested it.

* And by “successfully” I mean it was a slow-as-all-heck synchronization solution that required relaunching every few days and had extensive downtime – but otherwise seemed to be fairly reliable.