13 ms·

What is the selling point over the very mature Syncthing? I’ve been using that for this use case for many years, with the additional benefit of also being able

by dewey 1y ago

What is the selling point over the very mature Syncthing? I’ve been using that for this use case for many years, with the additional benefit of also being able to sync it to my server, having a UI and being in all package managers already.

anerli 1y ago
^ syncthing is nice
_pferreir_ 1y ago
This ^ I also recommend magic wormhole.
- johnisgood 1y ago
  And LocalSend.
progx 1y ago
NIH?
fxtentacle 1y ago
I especially like that Syncthing can do encrypted revision backups to untrusted servers. My workstation and laptop get synchronised. And in case I ever accidentally overwrite a file, there’s the past five revisions on an offsite server.
- lostmsu 1y ago
  How does your setup for the backup look like? Won't you lose the data if the source of backup data gets lost together with the keys?
  - fxtentacle 1y ago
    I printed out the keys. They’re only useful together with the offsite HDDs anyway, so someone would have to break into both houses to use them, which seems unlikely enough for me.
sirbread 1y ago
being fr, i never even knew about syncthing until now. it's (clearly) a lot better, but again, the reason I made this is because of my school's software whitelist. they only allow certain apps to run on my laptop, one of them being python due to out compsci class. since then, I've been using it to get around whitelists and make my own stuff. this allows me to sync up me and my friend's stuff (like projects, etc.) while we're in school and not have to worry about the whitelist :)
- ryanjshaw 1y ago
  That’s perfectly valid. Maybe add it to the top of your readme explaining what problem it solves (need to sync files between machines and all you can use is python).
- globular-toast 1y ago
  My initial thought was, man, your school is lame. But maybe it's genius? Creativity thrives in a constrained environment.
  - snackbroken 1y ago
    In high school they had a few information kiosk computers spread around the various buildings; two in the library, one in the main reception, one in the cafeteria, and one in the mostly unused hallway right outside the computer club room. They were locked down so you could only navigate some intranet pages using a rudimentary on-screen keyboard, with the rest of the hardware in a locked cabinet. Guess which one got digitally defaced a couple of times each semester. Guess which ones got left alone. Genius move by the IT guy. Every time it happened he would come talk to the club members about the difference between whitehat and blackhat hacking but other than that nobody ever got in trouble.
- udev4096 1y ago
  This kind of whitelisting does absolutely nothing. It's a straight up lolbin. Anyway, if python is allowed, then surely other languages can be added to whitelist. Ask them to whitelist go and use syncthing
shakna 1y ago
SyncThing's insistence that a web UI be how you do everything has caused me quite a few headaches. Especially when said UI regularly breaks accessibility tools. (The team do tend to fix those accessibility problems pretty fast. But spending a couple days a month working around a tool is not my idea of fun.)
- zimpenfish 1y ago
  > SyncThing's insistence that a web UI be how you do everything It does have `syncthing cli ...` which -I think- lets you do everything but to call it obtuse would be an understatement.
donatj 1y ago
Syncthing is the most confounding user-unfriendly software I have ever had the displeasure of using. It makes a process that should be pretty easy, pick some folders and share some keys remarkably painful and convoluted.
- xnx 1y ago
  Oh no. What makes it so hard? I was happy with the syncthing and syncthingtray setup process.
- feiss 1y ago
  +1000 times this
- pydry 1y ago
  to be fair, syncing is something that appears simple on the surface but which is a mess of complexity under the hood.
- agildehaus 1y ago
  Has any open-source project done it better? Serious question, I've been looking.
  - deepspace 1y ago
    I used Unison many years ago, and it worked perfectly for all my use cases. Not sure how it stacks up these days. CLI only IIRC.
    - 127dot1 1y ago
      I still use Unison as it is simpler than Syncthing. It does have GUI, which I use. I wouldn't call it pretty or polished, but it works and I understand how it works and the way it works is exactly how I think syncing should work. I've also configured it to run a GUI diff tool diffuse to easily combine changes in case of conflicts (when a file was changed on both sides since the last sync). I wish it was a bit more modern and re-written in a modern language, but that's secondary qualities for a program.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
lxgr 1y ago
99% less configuration and UI surfaces come to mind. Syncthing is great, but it does include everything and the kitchen sink. That's often great, but not always.
- sunshine-o 1y ago
  Absolutely. Syncthing is great but I really wish for a syncthing-lite you could deploy and configure easily. The version we have today is really suffering from a lot of legacy. I remember they are working on a big v2 with a revamp of the API which is a mess but they had to give up on getting rid on that horrible XML config file because it was too much work. Be aware they also recently silently disabled the sync of symlinks on the android build, what can cause a lot of bad surprises. They did define some specs of their protocols [0] but i haven't seen a alternative implementation yet. - [0] https://docs.syncthing.net/specs/index.html https://docs.syncthing.net/specs/index.html

by dewey 1y ago

anerli 1y ago

^ syncthing is nice

_pferreir_ 1y ago

This ^ I also recommend magic wormhole.

johnisgood 1y ago
And LocalSend.

progx 1y ago

NIH?

fxtentacle 1y ago

I especially like that Syncthing can do encrypted revision backups to untrusted servers. My workstation and laptop get synchronised. And in case I ever accidentally overwrite a file, there’s the past five revisions on an offsite server.

lostmsu 1y ago
How does your setup for the backup look like? Won't you lose the data if the source of backup data gets lost together with the keys?
- fxtentacle 1y ago
  I printed out the keys. They’re only useful together with the offsite HDDs anyway, so someone would have to break into both houses to use them, which seems unlikely enough for me.

sirbread 1y ago

being fr, i never even knew about syncthing until now. it's (clearly) a lot better, but again, the reason I made this is because of my school's software whitelist. they only allow certain apps to run on my laptop, one of them being python due to out compsci class. since then, I've been using it to get around whitelists and make my own stuff. this allows me to sync up me and my friend's stuff (like projects, etc.) while we're in school and not have to worry about the whitelist :)

ryanjshaw 1y ago
That’s perfectly valid. Maybe add it to the top of your readme explaining what problem it solves (need to sync files between machines and all you can use is python).
globular-toast 1y ago
My initial thought was, man, your school is lame. But maybe it's genius? Creativity thrives in a constrained environment.
- snackbroken 1y ago
  In high school they had a few information kiosk computers spread around the various buildings; two in the library, one in the main reception, one in the cafeteria, and one in the mostly unused hallway right outside the computer club room. They were locked down so you could only navigate some intranet pages using a rudimentary on-screen keyboard, with the rest of the hardware in a locked cabinet. Guess which one got digitally defaced a couple of times each semester. Guess which ones got left alone. Genius move by the IT guy. Every time it happened he would come talk to the club members about the difference between whitehat and blackhat hacking but other than that nobody ever got in trouble.
udev4096 1y ago
This kind of whitelisting does absolutely nothing. It's a straight up lolbin. Anyway, if python is allowed, then surely other languages can be added to whitelist. Ask them to whitelist go and use syncthing

shakna 1y ago

SyncThing's insistence that a web UI be how you do everything has caused me quite a few headaches. Especially when said UI regularly breaks accessibility tools. (The team do tend to fix those accessibility problems pretty fast. But spending a couple days a month working around a tool is not my idea of fun.)

zimpenfish 1y ago
> SyncThing's insistence that a web UI be how you do everything It does have `syncthing cli ...` which -I think- lets you do everything but to call it obtuse would be an understatement.

donatj 1y ago

Syncthing is the most confounding user-unfriendly software I have ever had the displeasure of using. It makes a process that should be pretty easy, pick some folders and share some keys remarkably painful and convoluted.

xnx 1y ago
Oh no. What makes it so hard? I was happy with the syncthing and syncthingtray setup process.
feiss 1y ago
+1000 times this
pydry 1y ago
to be fair, syncing is something that appears simple on the surface but which is a mess of complexity under the hood.
agildehaus 1y ago
Has any open-source project done it better? Serious question, I've been looking.
- deepspace 1y ago
  I used Unison many years ago, and it worked perfectly for all my use cases. Not sure how it stacks up these days. CLI only IIRC.
  - 127dot1 1y ago
    I still use Unison as it is simpler than Syncthing. It does have GUI, which I use. I wouldn't call it pretty or polished, but it works and I understand how it works and the way it works is exactly how I think syncing should work. I've also configured it to run a GUI diff tool diffuse to easily combine changes in case of conflicts (when a file was changed on both sides since the last sync). I wish it was a bit more modern and re-written in a modern language, but that's secondary qualities for a program.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

lxgr 1y ago

99% less configuration and UI surfaces come to mind. Syncthing is great, but it does include everything and the kitchen sink. That's often great, but not always.

sunshine-o 1y ago
Absolutely. Syncthing is great but I really wish for a syncthing-lite you could deploy and configure easily. The version we have today is really suffering from a lot of legacy. I remember they are working on a big v2 with a revamp of the API which is a mess but they had to give up on getting rid on that horrible XML config file because it was too much work. Be aware they also recently silently disabled the sync of symlinks on the android build, what can cause a lot of bad surprises. They did define some specs of their protocols [0] but i haven't seen a alternative implementation yet. - [0] https://docs.syncthing.net/specs/index.html https://docs.syncthing.net/specs/index.html