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Comment by zdw | Hacker News Reader

Alternatively, you could set up a private git repo, and use ssh keys to control access with gitolite or similar...

I tend to think that Dropbox is only useful for people who can't figure out version control, but that's probably my own bias.

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Or for people who want to share binary files, or for people who like drag-and-drop interfaces, or for people who don't want to spend a bunch of time learning about secure shared repo setup. In other words, for people who Just Want To Share A Damn Folder. Like my thesis advisor, my artist friends, and me, a loyal git user.

I find google doc better for sharing docs, you can edit them online anywhere and also upload any kind of files now though I never do.

Doesn't work at all if the source material is in LaTeX, or anything more complicated than RTF really.

You can still upload LaTeX docs to google docs and edit them with your own editor or use http://code.google.com/p/latex-lab/

However, one the great parts of Dropbox is that you don't have to pull new changes--they're automatically updated on your computer as soon as someone else changes a file. With Git, you'd have to remember to keep pulling the new information as needed.

I agree; my bias was to try and control everything (including lots of legal docs, in our business) with SVN. But it turns out ... "people who can't [or won't] figure out version control" amounts to just about everybody who's not a dev, in my world. There are lots of those people and they're important to my success (and, dear reader, it is likely, also to yours).

I store all of my code plus their git repos on my Dropbox, that's MY bias. ( And it's a useful one)

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