ExpanDrive: transparent remote file access

I just got finished putting ExpanDrive by Magnetk through its paces. In fact, I've been using it all morning and I'm duly impressed. It's an application that allows you to mount SFTP filesystems as local drives. I've used other MacFUSE-based systems in the past and I'm pleasantly surprised to find that ExpanDrive is more responsive and provides nearly seamless transparent access to my remote SFTP servers.

Aside from creating .DS_Store files on my remote volumes, it's a very fluid way to access remote files. It works with Subversion (and other versioning schemes, I assume), allowing apps like TextMate with support for Subversion to work as though you had the repository set up locally. TextMate creator Allan Odgaard even offers his endorsement. And it has great connection recovery that even allows you to take a laptop to another network and never notice a change in the status of the mounted servers. With labeling, Spotlight comments and full transparency, workflow integration is about as easy as my (possibly limited) imagination can fathom.

ExpanDrive has an introductory price of $29, with a demo available.

[via Daring Fireball]

Update: I'm told by the developers that the .DS_Store issue has been cured. That and several UI improvements will be available in the next version, scheduled for release by tomorrow.