I love syncthing as much as the next guy on here, but this article feels very much like "why doesn't this square peg fit my round hole?!" Dropbox (and iCloud) are meant more for cloud file storage than pure device-to-device synce. I couldn't go to a less tech savvy friend and say, "Oh, you use Dropbox for backups? Here, use syncthing instead!" For one, most people don't have multiple computers they want to keep in sy…
Startup idea: provide cloud backup service through Syncthing. End users install Syncthing and then add a remote host provided by your company that is bound to their account. That instance just keeps a copy of everything it receives on some cloud infrastructure. Slap a web interface and some modest data retention on it to recover files.
Computers as I used to love them
181–190 of 265 posts
Re: Computers as I used to love them
#182Yup, this overall experience of straightforward contained executables vs the entire mess we have now is vastly better. Also a big fan of Syncthing, and have now found something better: Bvckup 2. It has the same download -run experience, more controllable options, and runs a LOT faster by design. No commercial connection other than being a satisfied customer.
There is also a pricing scheme so you have to constantly have to check to see what features you have. The cheapest $30 version doesn't even come with a background service. That's only in the Pro version. And it's the same with the command line tool. I also find it weird that they market it as a backup tool when clearly it's just for syncing.
This product seems to be pretty much exactly what the author was complaining about.
Re: Computers as I used to love them
#183The most similar experience I had to this in recent years was using a program called wormhole for peer to peer file transfer: https://github.com/Jacalz/wormhole-gui
It was refreshing in a similar way; I download and open up the program, a friend does the same, and we can send files to each other, with a code genereated from the program. None of all this accounts stuff.
(For what it's worth, file sending has a similar issue as backup/sync that the author described -- most modern services are some centralized/cloud form, as opposed to the old days of ICQ/AIM/etc. where you could actually establish a direct connection to a friend and send files.)
Re: Computers as I used to love them
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
That was 10 years ago. Yes, I also started using it because of that. These days the the more important feature (at least for me) is being able to offload rarely used files from my drive. SSDs in MacBooks are still crazy expensive.
Way to take my thing and ruin it then be like "shut up it's old"
Re: Computers as I used to love them
#185I 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
#186Syncthing has reminded me how great computers can be if they are not made by corporations. It’s simple, predictable, sane, acts no-nonsense Most open source software is like that. In this very article you see exactly what capitalism and the profit motive does to software. Ancaps will constantly say the refrain “this is due to government, and corporatism, which is very different from capitalism” but I insist — do get…
> cryptocurrency, which can enable a form of socialism When you twist "socialism" into some libertarian ideal of flat & free markets, you lose a lot of meaning. Public blockchains behave similar to free markets, and have the same oft-ignored flaws. Namely, you need to trust that the market/blockchain is not de facto ruled by a shadowy cartel. This is often a poor assumption, because power consolidates over time. You…
Here is the first definition of Socialism from Google: a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.
Here is what Wikipedia says: Socialism is a political, social, and economic philosophy encompassing a range of economic and social systems characterised by social ownership[1][2][3][4] of the means of production.[5][6][7][8] It includes the political theories and movements associated with such systems.[9] Social ownership can be public, collective, cooperative, or of equity.[10] While no single definition encapsulates the many types of socialism,[11] social ownership is the one common element.
Sounds to me like this definition fits many Web3 crypto projects (like FileCoin etc) almost like a glove. Compare that to Web2 (basically all Big Tech companies) in which venture capitalists make early investments in shares (instead of tokens), prop up money-losing unit economics fo years, then dump the shares on the public in an IPO and Wall Street bigwigs who buy shares (instead of tokens) can thus force management to keep their backend source closed, their server farms centralized and extract rents forever, from users and advertisers etc. in order to satisfy wall street quarterly earnings goals.
It is fashionable in the USA to associate Socialism with State Socialism — and impugn to Socialism all the famines etc. done by governments claiming to enforce it (like holodomor and China’s famines under Mao due to enforced collectivization)
…while dissociating Capitalism from State Capitalism — neatly blaming it on “Corporatism” — and avoid having to answer for similar things done by governments to enforce it (like the various famines under the British Raj in India and Begal region, and the Irish Potato famine which was perpetuated primarily BECAUSE of government enforcing the private property rights of landlords even over the basic survival needs of peasant tenants).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)
Both capitalism and socialism taken too far and using too much force to enforce the system can have bad consequences. But there are libertarian versions of both. Google “libertarian socialism” to find things like kibbutzim, moshavim, housing cooperatives, food cooperatives, as well as credit unions etc. These are all examples of socialism without the state. And many times they have far better outcomes than their capitalist counterparts (landlord-owned buildings, commercial banks etc.)
Remember that socialism can be embedded in markets. But socialist organizations have no profit motive and no class warfare between landlords and tenants, shareholders and customers, because they are one and the same. So the organization tends to have some democratic governance mechanism (governance tokens, DAOs… are you starting to get it now?)
Re: Computers as I used to love them
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know anyone who uses Synching with any type of cloud-based instance, so I'm not sure this is a real issue for Syncthing users. It's all P2P file synchronization between their own devices.
Then why does the author even compare the two? I can do this with time machine, or by just copying to a network drive.
Re: Computers as I used to love them
#188Besides needing a (2020) in the title, this deserves some commentary. I switched from Dropbox to a mix of OneDrive and SyncThing in 2020 due to the bloat in their client app: switch: https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2020/06/21/1600 later: https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2020/08/08/1900 What I did, in a nutshell, was to remove the Dropbox client from all of my machines, link my Synology NAS to my Dropbox account (and t…
Syncing git repos using a tool other than git seems like you're asking for trouble. Git is already meant to be used for distributing a repo to multiple computers. It's responsible for the "syncing".
Let's say you have to computers. Both go offline. Then you make a guy commit on each computer. Then they go back online. What do you expect to happen? Even if there are no conflicts in the commits, your .git directory is going to be messed up.
Re: Computers as I used to love them
#189Re: Computers as I used to love them
#190The 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…
I think everything you say is true and understandable. But all these 'good practices' add up to a convulted experience. I recently tried moving my family over to a password manager. Something that can be understood and managed by my SO even if I should die etc. Something also usable for my 12 yo kid. Not as simple as it sounds. Across iPad/Pixel Phone/Edge Browser/Surface Book for my kid for example.