Q:

How can I synchronize effectively a large directory containing lots of photos between 3 LAN / different OS hosts?

This would be working between Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, Windows 7 and Windows XP?
I would like to achieve something like Dropbox service, but only in local network.
What I currently use:
Ubuntu has the Samba server installed and I am syncing the Windows boxes via SyncToy.
Problems I have with it are:

How to keep all the 3 copies in sync? (without differences between hosts(!))
Manually syncing is not really convenient, it should be "half-automatic"
Dependency issues between 3 copies: Delete files on host #1, change the same file on #2, and manually sync the #3 :/

As far as I know, best option would be to use the one "central file storage" and make backups of it,
remaining two hosts should mount the directory remotely.
What I looked into so far:
- rsync (Unison? - not sure on how to properly use it)
- Dropbox (great but req. network connection all the time -> cloud, limited storage space!)
How to solve it better? Please note that this should work between Linux and 2 Windows versions.
Thanks, Andrzej

A:

You can run rsync on windows, via cygwin (and possibly other ways as well)
also http://fak3r.com/geek/howto-build-your-own-open-source-dropbox-clone/
I've not had a chance to play with it yet, but I do plan on setting it up.  

