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

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

#61

Try TabXpert extension. It has session tracking (the latest version is saved automatically, no duplicates), supports tab groups, and has real-time sync with the Cloud. You can even work in the same session on different profiles (PCs) simultaneously, it will sync your work bi-directionally. And it has import from Workona.

Thank you for the suggestion. I went and checked it, but this is not it.

I see several answers in this post that don't understand what Edge or Arc do when it comes to tab/workspace syncing.

It's all seamless. When I move from one computer to the other one, without having to do absolutely any step, everything is open and in the correct workspace in the other computer.

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

#62

I use Vivaldi browser and this does it very cleanly for me. I can see the tabs that are open on my phone, my laptop, or my desktop from the other devices. I can choose to open one tab from there or all of them. Works very well for me.

Vivaldi is the only browser that comes a bit close to what Arc and Edge do. But it doesn't really do it.

I still have to go to the sync windows and choose which tabs from the other device to open in the present devices. If you try Edge or Arc you will see the difference and how it's totally seamless there.

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

#63
post #18

Both, Safari and Chrome offer tab sync. Safari through iCloud on device and Chrome through browser login. Chrome works more reliably. Safari has some random reload issues from time to time.

Yes, I think all browsers now-a-days have some form of tab synching. But the tabs don't really sync between devices, you just get a list of the tabs open in 1 device and can open them on the other device if you click on them.

Arc and Edge go a lot further than that. They effectively keep the open tabs in sync between devices.

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

#64
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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’v…

Vivaldi still doesn't do what Arc and Edge do.

Vivaldi presents me the open tabs in another device in a window and I can choose which ones to open on the present device. Arc and Edge bypass that step. The open tabs in 1 device are always in sync with the open tabs in another device.

If you create a new tab in device 1, a tab will automatically open in device 2 with the contents of the tab. If you close the tab on device 2, it will automatically close on device 1.

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

#65

This is what Firefox sync solves (especially with the tab stash extension). I don't know what to do about macos battery life though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

No, tab stash only stashes the tabs for later use on this or another device.

Edge and Arc, always keep the open tabs in sync across all devices.

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

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That only supports connecting to a centralized "workspace", from what I can see. As such it seems more like Microsoft's DevBox. That could certainly be usable, assuming the performance is there, though for me I want to remotely use my desktop session.

No, it also supports connecting to remote sessions via several mechanisms (RDP, RDS (marked as 'to include' in Kasm, already supported by Guacamole), SSH, and VNC, handled by Apache Guacamole [1] as described in the documentation [2]). I use this to access desktop sessions running on Linux hosts, both 'bare metal' workstations as well as sessions running in Proxmox-managed containers. This uses Xrdp to serve X11 sess…

> This uses Xrdp to serve X11 sessions from Linux hosts

I admit it was some years ago since I tried Xrdp, but I'm fairly certain Xrdp then did not allow me to resume a local session via RDP, and vice versa.

This is what I was trying to say in my previous post. Has this changed?

Ie I can log on to my Linux box normally, then lock it (not log out), connect via RDP and resume the session? How about if the Linux machine has rebooted, if I connected via RDP after reboot, will I be able to resume the remote session locally after I get back to my desktop?

This did not work with Xrdp as I recall.

> Another - more performant - option would be to run an X2Go server

Again a few years since I tried X2Go, but back then performance was... tolerable. Nowhere near native Windows RDP sadly. But I'm willing to give it another whirl.

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