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How is this any different from dropbox or tons of other file hosting sites out there?

I guess it's geared towards some different use case, just compare the workflow with something like Dropbox:

- with Dropbox I've a public folder which is linked from my Finder sidebar so I can simply drop an existing file into it and copy the public URL by right-clicking on it

- with Crate I've to open a tab with the website, navigate to the file, drag back to browser (not Finder, where I am when navigating to the file), then copy the URL, then decide what to do with the original file on my harddisk

Maybe that's easier for some tasks or for some users, I don't know. Maybe the last bit is crucial: do I want to keep the file locally (Dropbox) or just put it out there?

For me, the initial download & setup of something like Dropbox is worth the benefits it provides.

You have to download dropbox.

You don't have to, though it's geared towards that. You can use it entirely through the web interface if you want, manually uploading and downloading files.

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