Much like DropBox, with Ubuntu One you do have to sign up for a service. And, as I mentioned in the previous article, Ubuntu One has two levels:

• Free: The free account offers 2 Gigs of storage space.
• Paid: The paid account offers you 50 Gigs of storage space for $10.00 USD per month.

Once you have signed up with an account, you can then install the client, and finally enjoy all the syncing between Ubuntu computers you need. In this article you will see just how to install the client and begin using Ubuntu One.

Signing up

Before we get to the installation process, we must first visit the sign up process. It’s actually quite easy. Go to the Ubuntu One Plan page and select your plan. Once you have signed up for your plan, you then can proceed to the installation process.

Installation

After you have signed up you can then install the software. I will assume you are using Ubuntu 9.04 for this installation. The first thing you need to do is make sure your 9.04 is up to date. So run the Update Manager (found in the Administration sub-menu of the System menu). Once that is done you need to add the correct repositories to your /etc/apt/sources.list file. There is a very simple way to add these repositories to your sources file. If you click on this link allow GDebi to install the .deb file which will create a file in /etc/apt/sources.list.d called ubuntuone-beta-sources.list with the following contents:

# Ubuntu One Beta PPA sources
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntuone/beta/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntuone/beta/ubuntu jaunty main

Or you could add the above code to your /etc/apt/sources.list file.

I would suggest going with the automatic method, because it will also add the GPG key for you.

Once you have done that you can open up Synaptic (Not the Add/Remove Software tool) with the command sudo synaptic and follow these steps:

1. Search for “ubuntuone-client-gnome” (No quotes).
2. Accept all of the dependencies.
3. Click Apply to install.

Once installed you fill find the Ubuntu One entry in the Internet sub-menu of the Applications menu.

Using Ubuntu One

Figure 1

When you start Ubuntu One for the first time it will also start your browser to the Ubuntu One page. From this page you will need to create an account or sign in to your account. After you sign in you will then have to add the computer you are using to the account. You can add as many accounts as you need. After you add the computer the Ubuntu One icon residing in your GNOME panel will appear, show your files being updated (if there are any), and then the icon will disappear. If you want the icon to remain on the panel you just need to start the application again where you can then configure the icon to appear at all times (see Figure 1).

Here you can also configure Ubuntu One to start upon login as well as limit bandwidth usage.

If you find that the Ubuntu One icon does not show up after the initial sync, make sure you have it set up to connect automatically on start, log out, and then log back in. You should then see the Ubuntu One icon in your panel (see Figure 2).

Figure 2

The Ubuntu One icon you see in Figure 2 is the second from the left (between the Google Desktop icon and the DropBox icon).

You are ready to use Ubuntu One. You will find a new directory created in your ~/ directory called Ubuntu One. Any file you place in this folder will be sync’d with your Ubuntu One account. As soon as you add a file to this folder you will see it automatically start to sync with your Ubuntu One account.

Final thoughts

Ubuntu One certainly one-ups DropBox for simplicity. This tool will make using Ubuntu on the business level all the more easier. You will be able to easily sync all of your files between home and work. Give Ubuntu One a try.

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The other requirements are a Windows Live ID and Microsoft Internet Explorer to access the contents on the Internet. Users who might find those restrictions to strict are better off with Dropbox who is less restrictive in this regard.

Live Mesh works by adding computer devices to the Mesh. The Mesh are all devices that synchronize data. It basically works by adding devices to the Mesh in first place, e.g. a local computer running Windows XP. That computer is then added to the Mesh that the user has access to. The process finishes with the installation of the Live Mesh software on the local computer.

Live Mesh will create a system folder on the computer system containing all folders that have been selected for synchronization by the user. That’s different from Dropbox which makes use of one static folder with the requirement that all synchronized folders are created in that folder. Some users have posted workarounds by using symbolic links but that’s pretty advanced and not recommended for beginners or inexperienced computer users.

Folders can be added by right-clicking them and selecting “Add folder to Live Mesh” from the context menu. It takes a few seconds before the newly selected folder appears in the global system folder. Synchronization with the Live Mesh online service usually starts immediately afterwards.

Live Mesh is currently providing 5 Gigabytes of storage space to its users, 3 Gigabytes more than what Dropbox is currently offering.

Another interesting option is the ability to invite members. Inviting members will give them access to selected folders – and their files. That’s interesting if documents need to be shared with several computer users regularly.

Live Mesh does have its shortcomings. The main being the concentration on the Windows platform and the Internet Explorer requirement for browsing the data online. While Internet Explorer will surely remain a requirement the prospect of being able to add mobile devices and Macs looks interesting. It remains to be seen though if mobile devices are limited to the Windows Mobile platform.

As of now Live Mesh provides a fast way of synchronizing data online for Windows users. It works intuitive, the performance is fine and the storage space is enough for a lots of data.

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The software client basically uses one source folder on the hard drive where all the files and folders are stored in locally. Uploading files is just a matter of moving files and folders into the Dropbox zone on the computer or by creating and editing files already in that special folder.

When the Dropbox client is running the files and folders will get automatically synced with the online client which keeps the most recent copies of the files and folders including file revisions. The web client of DropBox can be used to download or view files without having to run the software client. The client can also be used to upload new files to the service.

Dropbox currently has a 2 Gigabyte limit for every user which is definitely enough for many purposes. One of the interesting features of Dropbox is being able to share a folder with another person. It pretty much works the same as sharing a folder between different computers.

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OpenDrive is another service that enters the market which adds itself to the list of available devices in My Computer. It’s currently only available for Windows XP and Windows Vista users but a Mac version is in the making according to the developers.

It’s basically a remote drive that can be used to transfer and synchronize files with the online storage efficiently. One interesting feature is the ability to view links of the files in your OpenDrive folder that can be copied and send to friends and contacts immediately.

OpenDrive comes with basic security settings that allow the owner to manage the access rights of a folder. It can be set to be private, public or viewable to friends, family and contacts.

Users of BOXSTr.com can use OpenDrive without registering a new user account at the website. They can simply login with their BOXSTr user data and their files will be automatically synced with OpenDrive.

Users of the public beta get 1 Gigabyte of storage space which should be enough for most uses.

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Several computers can be authorized to access an account at Dropbox making it an effective way to work with files between those registered computers. Files can be downloaded at anytime and it is even possible to look at Revisions of those files. The so called Drop Box works much like the Windows Explorer. Files and folders can be added, deleted, renamed which will be automatically synced with the online interface of Dropbox.

Files can be recovered or purged in the web interface if they have been deleted on a registered computer. This is excellent if a file has been deleted by accident.

A public folder is available that can make files available for the public which basically means that the user can copy an url that gives access to the file or files in that folder.

Shared folders on the other hand are useful for project and team work. Every member that gets added to that folder can perform all file and folder operations which, in combination with the revision system, provides an easy to use way of handling project files.

Dropbox is definitely easy to use. There is no irritating progress bar or window during file uploads, everything is handled in the background. The current beta accounts can use 2 Gigabytes of free storage, it would be nice to see a feature where users who share folders can add part of their own storage to that shared folder. A Linux client is currently tested internally and will be available to all Beta testers pretty soon.

Plans are that the 2 Gigabyte account will remain free for all users and that Dropbox will earn their money with accounts that demand additional storage space and premium features.

I would like to thank Dark Kosmos for sending me the invite. I have ten invites of my own right now and would like to give them away here. Just post a comment and I will draw the lucky ten after a while.

Update:

Jon from Dropbox contacted me and promised to supply more invites for his website. I therefor invited the first nine users who left a comment for now and will invite the others once I receive additional invites!

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