What is your favourite open source software that you discovered in the past year, that you can no longer live without?
Mine is Local Send which is a FOSS alternative similar to air drop that works across a variety of devices.
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Syncthing; it's a modern miracle
What is it?
Similar in function to google drive or onedrive or other cloud sync services but everything is kept local, more performant, and non-intrusive. Each device keeps your chosen synced folders up to date with other devices. You choose what is synced with each device on a foldee-by-folder basis.
I use it to sync my password manager database (keepass) and my notes app, among other things. So all my devices have the password database up to date and i can use the same password manager accross them.
It also provides version control optionally. I use obsidian for notes so if i screw up i can revert to the prwvious revision as a complex 'undo' option.
Works on major platforms including android, Linux, windows, and i assume apple stuff.
Awesome. I wonder if I can incorporate OneDrive easily. I'm on a family plan and have 1 TB of storage. Maybe there's a way to upload stuff to OneDrive without the garbage of OneDrive.
Hmm. No it won't work like that. It only syncs between devices. But i suppose you could have a dedicated device sitting in a closet or whatever which only handles a cloud sync service to which you could use synching with the one drive folders. That would minimize the suffering of having to deal with the broken interface of onedruve/google sync.
Yeah exactly. The Drive Sync hasn't been too bad but OneDrive app is much more limited and I'm afraid to use it because it's so flaky. Especially on non-Windows.
It syncs things.
No but really, it’s Pretty freaking cool A tool you can use to automatically sync data across multiple OS with minimal interaction from you.
Oh, is it like a Dropbox but without a cloud?
Yes. You have a "share". That's the imaginary dropbox-like thing. Then you have a folder on some device that you link to that share. All folders you link with that share become the same on any device, intelligently.
For sanity's sake, unless I'm doing something like syncing game map folders across devices but inside a game's special map folder, i keep them all in a folder called 'sync', and name the folders in 'sync' after the share name. Otherwise, things can get wonky. Consistent naming is important imo. With a share called "share with bob" started from a folder called 'bob sync' on sam's end, 'Sam' on bob's end, and they stay that way after anita joins, and she calls it 'bob and Sam' or something. Someone else joins and calls it "buddies". Then, people say things like 'i put it in the sam folder', and it brings up questions.
But with a little bit of organization, it's awesome. Drop a file in a folder, and it's now on the other person's computer too. They move it out, and the file's gone for you.
If the computers can talk to each other (same lan, or proper internet connection) they will. If you have dysfunctional NAT or phones with no public-facing IP that are connecting to each other, just make sure some system can be accessed, and it's all good. You want a cloud backup? Just set up the daemon on a server somewhere, and join the share.
It synchronises files between machines. So you could sync your home folder for example or just backup games that don't support cloud saves
When I learned about it first time I thought it sounded too good to be true. Turns out, it is just that good.
Last time I tried it, it choked on anything over a million files. Is it better now?