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Ask HN: How do you sync ongoing browser work between desktop and laptop?

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Ask HN: How do you sync ongoing browser work between desktop and laptop?

#1
For a long time now, I have both a Work Desktop and a Work/Personal Laptop (both are company issued, but I have full control over both of them). The laptop runs macOS, the Desktop runs Linux (I can install whatever). Also, I'm mostly doing DevOps these days.

When it comes to code, I just do the normal approach of using a git branch, and most of the time I just SSH into the Desktop and run it from there. So, that pain point is solved.

My biggest, always ongoing problem, is to sync what I'm doing/researching in the browser. The best workflow I've found, is to have a mix of open tabs and spaces sync automatically. But it's a difficult setup to come by.

Let me explain. Before, I used to use a Chrome (now Firefox as well) plugin, named workona [1]. This was great if it worked properly all the times. But it doesn't, it's quite buggy.

Then, Edge added workspaces and tab syncing and, well, it works great... but I really dislike Edge. Starting by the CTRL-TAB shortcut that simply doesn't work as intended (I know there are some hacks around it, but they are hacks, and don't work as well as expected).

Then Arc Browser [2] came along and also has workspaces and sync. Arc is great, I really like it, but it doesn't work on Linux.

So, unless I use Edge (which I prefer not to), or workona (which is buggy), this approach is not working.

But surely, you say, this can't be that complicated. A lot of people should do something similar and don't need these fancy browser setups. Well, how exactly do you do it, then? I would really like to have some suggestions here.

Just another thing. Firefox really isn't an option. I'm past struggling with it draining my battery on macOS - no matter how much the devs and users assure me that's not the case and all works great now.

[1] https://workona.com/ [2] https://arc.net/

Re: Ask HN: How do you sync ongoing browser work between desktop and laptop?

#3
post #2

Edge isn't the only major browser with tab sync. For example, Brave has it.

No, it's a totally different concept. Brave lets you check which tabs are open in another machine and open them on the current machine if you want.

Edge and Arc always keep your tabs in sync between devices and inside their respective workspaces. It's a seamless transition between devices.

Re: Ask HN: How do you sync ongoing browser work between desktop and laptop?

#4
Use https://raindrop.io/

It's a wonderful (free) cross-device bookmark manager but ... you can save all open tabs in two clicks (click save icon and click "+ tabs"). It even automatically tags tabs w/ the date or you can save them with any collection and/or tags you choose.

In addition, you can add notes, attach up to 100MB of files per month (on free plan).

It runs on and syncs between Mac, iOS, Android, Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge.

Re: Ask HN: How do you sync ongoing browser work between desktop and laptop?

#6
post #3
post #2

Edge isn't the only major browser with tab sync. For example, Brave has it.

No, it's a totally different concept. Brave lets you check which tabs are open in another machine and open them on the current machine if you want. Edge and Arc always keep your tabs in sync between devices and inside their respective workspaces. It's a seamless transition between devices.

> Edge and Arc always keep your tabs in sync between devices and inside their respective workspaces

Maybe try Vivaldi? https://vivaldi.com/

I’ve got about 5 different workspaces and can flip between any of them on windows/linux whether that’s desktop or laptop.

Has a ton of features I always wanted in Firefox, but never knew I needed (I think that statement makes sense?)

OSX app is a bit meh, but might be because I’ve got muscle memory with safari.

Edit — as a DevOps main I feel your documentation/research pain. Genuinely I feel like Vivaldi solved the 300+ tabs over multiple OSes/machines problem for me. (I think my record was 500ish tabs at one point).

Edit 2 — maybe it’s not a DevOps thing. Maybe I’m just a tabs weirdo. :shrugs:

Re: Ask HN: How do you sync ongoing browser work between desktop and laptop?

#9
It is not what you're asking for, so this is almost off topic but: to send tabs to my Android phone or from there to my laptop I share them manually with KDEConnect. It's Android, Linux, Windows. GNOME too with GSConnect. The rationale is that it doesn't make sense to have on my phone all the tabs I have on my work laptop. It's often not possible too: web apps on customers LANs and VPNs.

Re: Ask HN: How do you sync ongoing browser work between desktop and laptop?

#10
Since you mentioned that you have FireFox installed, I would encourage you to sign in and use FF Sync. You can even send tabs across and all sorts of things.

As soon as you mentioned that you moved to FF, I was expecting you to say that the problem was solved. I've been using it for many years now, it is so smooth that I just take it for granted now.

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