Computers as I used to love them • Hacker News Board

Re: Computers as I used to love them

#71

Post by Breazy » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 1:05 PM UTC

newaccount74 wrote: post #66

The best thing about Syncthing is that it does not require accounts! With iCloud and Dropbox (and SaaS in general), everything is linked to your user account. They assume that each computer is used by exactly one user. But that just doesn't match my reality! At home we have a shared computer in the living room, and at work we have build servers shared by multiple people. I really don't want to sign in with my persona…

> They assume that each computer is used by exactly one user.

It's not so much that they assume it.. they leave that feature out deliberately so they can up-sell you to 'Dropbox Family' or 'Dropbox Business'. This is a great example of the commercial incentives for Dropbox degrading the user experience.

Re: Computers as I used to love them

#72

Post by danparsonson » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 1:06 PM UTC

sva_ wrote: post #65

I was wondering how Synching finds another computer by the generated ID. Is there some central server or is it done using some kind of P2P swarm?

edit: ignore this, the software can relay connections when direct connection is impossible.

Just found this in the FAQ:

> If you see outgoing connections to odd and unexpected addresses these are most likely connections to relay servers. Relay servers are run by volunteers all over the world. They usually listen on ports 443 or 22067, though this is controlled by the user running it. You can compare the address you are concernced about with the current list of active relays. Relays do not and can not see the data transmitted via them.

"P2P swarm" sounds about right?

Re: Computers as I used to love them

#73

Post by jbellis » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 1:06 PM UTC

mogoh wrote: post #51

I tried many sync solutions (Syncthing, SparkleShare, Resilio, Mega, Seafile, NextCloud) and I almost always experienced some kind of data corruption. Syncthing was no exception. I could not reproduce the problem, so I never made a bug report. The corruption was something like this: - I recursively renamed all files from a folder from uppercase to lower case. Suddenly I duplicated files, uppercase and lower case. - I…

I've been using resilio sync for years without corruption. If you're seeing corruption across half a dozen different systems, I wonder if you might have a hardware problem.

Re: Computers as I used to love them

#74

Post by danparsonson » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 1:10 PM UTC

sva_ wrote: post #65

I was wondering how Synching finds another computer by the generated ID. Is there some central server or is it done using some kind of P2P swarm?

Sorry this looks more relevant than my other comment - I really should finish reading before I post:

https://docs.syncthing.net/users/stdiscosrv.html

"Syncthing relies on a discovery server to find peers on the internet. Anyone can run a discovery server and point Syncthing installations to it. The Syncthing project also maintains a global cluster for public use."

Re: Computers as I used to love them

#75

Post by zafka » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 1:11 PM UTC

I am saving this to read all the comments later. This is appears to be very close to what I was thinking of to replace my need for 3rd party cloud storage. Still need to add striping and encryption of files across various other computers. This will allow you to use a small group of trusted friends at different locations as your cloud.

Re: Computers as I used to love them

#76

Post by Macha » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 1:14 PM UTC

qayxc wrote: post #69

newaccount74 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both are solutions to sync a folder across multiple devices. The fact that dropbox added a bunch of extra features over the years is irrelevant to most users.

That's like arguing Photoshop is too complicated compared to MS Paint, because both can resize and crop images. If all you want to do is syncing folders across devices, use a tool that does just that. Just to emphasize how this is relevant, here's what Dropbox says about what it is [0]. > What is Dropbox? > Dropbox is a place where all your team’s content comes together. There's nothing in that very first sentence of…

Dropbox wants users to see Dropbox as all these things because syncing is a table stakes feature for all their competitors now. So they add all these in search of a USP.

From my experience though, their users (and not just the tech bubble) don't care. Someone who even opens the Web interface to access a file without a client/app installed counts as a power user. In fact as more people use aaS that hide the concept of files, a lot of those users are dropping off as they have all their docs in Google docs or photos in iCloud or whatever

Re: Computers as I used to love them

#77

Post by fuzzy2 » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 1:16 PM UTC

The part comparing the installation is a little disingenuous IMHO. You cannot seriously be complaining about Gatekeeper if you’re using a Mac. Dropbox has a web interface so it needs an account. 2FA enhances account security. Installing Homebrew also used sudo. In fact, you had to install it first. If you didn’t, you also wouldn’t have the Homebrew-services helper. And what’s wrong with an OOBE wizard? It’s software for everyone.

I haven’t used Dropbox in years (because it sucks now and I use ZFS), but this is not a fair comparison.

Syncthing is great. However, in comparison with Dropbox, if I look past the differences in what it does, I find that it’s just not suitable for most users. Remember that most users are barely able to operate their internet browser. Even seasoned users may have trouble setting it up on, say, Windows.

Re: Computers as I used to love them

#78

Post by stavros » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 1:19 PM UTC

causi wrote: post #5

Does Syncthing allow you to sync two differently-named folders as one folder while preserving the respective names? For example, your pictures folder may not be called the same thing on your phone and computer, or across Windows and Linux, or you want to sync game save files between Android and Windows.

Yes, it doesn't care where each folder is on the FS or what it's called.

Re: Computers as I used to love them

#79

Post by pacifika » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 1:30 PM UTC

mogoh wrote: post #51

I tried many sync solutions (Syncthing, SparkleShare, Resilio, Mega, Seafile, NextCloud) and I almost always experienced some kind of data corruption. Syncthing was no exception. I could not reproduce the problem, so I never made a bug report. The corruption was something like this: - I recursively renamed all files from a folder from uppercase to lower case. Suddenly I duplicated files, uppercase and lower case. - I…

It’s not recommended to sync a git repo

Re: Computers as I used to love them

#80

Post by deepsun » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 1:32 PM UTC

jwr wrote: post #9

I've been using Syncthing for about a year now, with multiple computers, and it's fantastic. Dropbox has become a real pain over the years (I've also been a paid Dropbox customer for a long time): * adding bloat and features that I don't want or need * constantly nagging me for upgrades * lying that the admin password is required (it isn't) * consuming large amounts of CPU when anything changes anywhere in the filesy…

> * lying that the admin password is required (it isn't)

I love it, and turned on in Signal as well. Otherwise I'll forget it eventually.