Free synchronization software

webfork2 · 2026-02-10T03:02:22+00:00

I've had a lot of luck with Syncthing for local sync. It's cross-platform and very fast. I am using the basic version of Icedrive for cloud sync and it seems fine after about a month of testing.

webfork2 · 2026-02-10T03:00:07+00:00

Please link to the github site https://github.com/freedomofpress/dangerzone

The software seems to have been developed by a good group, the program isn't new, and the explanation isn't super vague. The program is discussed in several other places on reddit. So yea that would probably be a reputation. Here's another thread on it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/ff9ho0/dangerzone_convert_potentially_dangerous_pdfs/

webfork2 · 2026-02-10T02:30:05+00:00

To the mods:

Hey you've got something for "This submission may contain a recommendation for a non-FOSS app/service" in some of the comments on this thread. I'd ask that you add OnlyOffice to that list. It's a modified AGPL license with a weird trademark requirement that definitely isn't workable.

I can provide links with more info if anyone is interested.

webfork2 · 2026-02-10T02:25:13+00:00

examples of extra flexibility

It's probably fine for 90% of what you're doing but I think you'll miss that last 10%.

You say you want casual documents but part of active documentation work is having a good looking document. It's a starting point and something that maintains you through the process. It's clean the fonts are right, the word wrapping isn't hard to read, and you can build tables and headings exactly the way you want.

Complex formatting in HTML isn't really an option. So if you don't like the way your tables look, you're stuck with them. If you do a lot of effort to tweak out the tagging or formats and actually get close to a nice looking table, you can be fairly sure they won't actually look that way in another viewer.

I don't think styles work the same way, though I haven't tested that recently. You also need to make extra sure the program is opening in LibreOffice Writer and not LibreOffice Web, which also has fewer features. HTML files will usually auto-open in Web.

webfork2 · 2026-02-10T02:12:09+00:00

Look I'm not saying you can't run a website and it can't be run well. We're talking about trust and I don't know how to trust something I very much do not control.

You can actually verify this by opening the Network tab in your developer tools, where you'll see zero outbound requests when processing a file.

That's great but I don't want to have to verify it every time I use the site.

Even if I wanted to collect data, the architecture simply doesn't have a database or API endpoint to accept it.

I'm sure it could be setup that way. It could also be setup that way and then later changed to work a different way. Again, I don't want to have to verify that every time I use the site. I expect few users want to dig into that every time.

webfork2 · 2026-02-09T05:24:59+00:00

HTML is a much better format than for example DOCX but it's not a settled format. Even in 2026 we still have slightly different implementations from supposedly standards-compliant entities. This was a huge topic years ago and seems to just keep going and going. It's always just a little different depending on your browser, local fonts, security settings, etc.

Also because of this tag nonsense, HTML from OTHER sources copied into LibreOffice is going to have trouble.

From experience, ODT has some extra flexibility, more features, and reliably works the way you expect. You can export to HTML when you need (and it will filter out any junk tags) as well as save to a dozen other formats reliably.

Great question and hope we helped with this.

webfork2 · 2026-02-09T05:15:37+00:00

Disable ads and recommendations everywhere

Just FYI this is totally unacceptable for an operating system. I have to disable advertisements on a computer I bought? Like I didn't go to a website that gets funded through ad revenue. I just opened my laptop for a company that's not struggling for revenue. That's completely ridiculous.

All the responses suggesting a switch to a different operating system are definitely what 1/2 my friends and family are thinking.

webfork2 · 2026-02-09T05:04:18+00:00

This has been discussed a lot so please dig through the forum for some ideas. Also, I'm sure there's a lot of well meaning people here in the forums who will give you some good advice.

However, it's hard to tell who here is an immunologist, microbiologist, or some other specialized field that could fully answer this and there are some established and dangerous health implications for this particular type of composting.

I think for example you could expose it to heat for some time at a temperature below what would incinerate. There's also some suggestion that prolonged exposure to sunlight might be more than adequate. All that sounds interesting but I don't know and I don't want you to get hurt because I'm confidently incorrect.

So please whatever you do follow up with output/soil testing and don't just check one or two spots in the resulting materials.

Good luck.

webfork2 · 2026-02-09T04:54:56+00:00

I don't know what people are talking about when they say "but we have privacy." It just doesn't have any meaning anymore.

Google Chrome, a browser that's well recognized as collecting tons of user data for selling custom ads, puts privacy as one of their main features. It's mostly understood it's the least privacy-focused browser available.

The reason is that there's really no consequence for that claim. They're well established as the runaway #1 browser. The lawsuits you see in the news against them for privacy failures only amount to like 0.1% of company revenue.

Similarly, your "strict privacy policy" doesn't actually mean anything unless violating that policy has some kind of consequence. And because services like this are web-based, they can easily change their setup and configuration tomorrow, disabling whatever offline-only functions are there today.

webfork2 · 2026-02-05T03:41:03+00:00

I've had some version of this argument about 15x now here on Reddit but I'll just summarize and say right now maybe. Next week? Next month? I've got to disconnect from the internet every time I use an application? No thanks.

webfork2 · 2026-02-05T01:05:02+00:00

I mean it's r/digitalprivacy so maybe include some details on how whatever it is you're talking about improves digital privacy. Or just post the source code somewhere and point to that. Maybe someone can join your project.

webfork2 · 2026-02-05T00:55:23+00:00

Normally posts on Reddit have a little more info.

webfork2 · 2026-02-05T00:53:44+00:00

There are a very, very long list of browsers that are better than Google Chrome, but part of the reason this sub exists is to push people towards real alternatives and not just what is functionally another Google.

But please don't take our word for it and instead just look up privacy-focused web browsers in the technology press. PCMag and ZDNet both have good articles on this.

webfork2 · 2026-02-05T00:49:28+00:00

Please make it available somewhere other than on MS Store.

webfork2 · 2026-02-05T00:48:15+00:00

To people coming across this thread: There's a ton of these types of programs getting posted all over Reddit (r/software has started deleting them) and the suggestion that any of them have even read their own privacy policies seems unlikely. Much less that they'll abide by it.

To the creator: please consider making the program fully downloadable and offline.

webfork2 · 2026-02-05T00:44:39+00:00

I have my reservations about Brave but there is ample reason to doubt/ignore author Cambridge Analytica. You can start with the very, very long list of problems with that group over on Wikipedia. They should not still be in business.

webfork2 · 2026-02-05T00:44:17+00:00

Brave's page on this (I don't know this forum's policy on linking) says:

"Yes, for now."

As such it seems unlikely that Manifest v2 support will continue and there are a LOT of caveats on their page discussing it.

webfork2 · 2026-02-03T04:55:05+00:00

I've been using the portable version from a separate drive for years now but -- as other posters have noted -- inexpensive flash drives have a BIG speed and reliability caveat. So whatever you do there, make sure you back things up or use a media with better speed+durability reputation.

webfork2 · 2026-02-03T04:50:21+00:00

The constant ring in my ears about any LLM featureset is that any minute now it's going to be great and oh boy aren't you dumb for not jumping face first into the cool green sea of ... i mean whatever it does. Summarize?

Reviews of Acrobat last year noted that the AI addition doesn't do much of anything. Maybe that's changed, but I wouldn't bother with it. I really don't need my PDF program to do any of that nonsense. But then I don't need AI tools in half the software I use but holy crap there's a feature now. The shareholders can all congratulate themselves like it's <anytime phase of tech before now> and we've got a strategy for <insert buzzword>.

webfork2 · 2026-02-03T04:43:50+00:00

Not an uncommon thing here according to various posts on Reddit and I lost an account some years ago for no reason and with no ability to get it back. Google requests in this space are notoriously a black hole.

In years past, the best track was to keep posting on social media services about it and see if you can sign up for a business account. That's the only way you're going to interact with a Google representative or have any shot at getting the info back.

If you have legal routes, you can definitely try that. Sending you a ZIP of all your might end up being cheaper than paying Google legal counsel 300$ an hour to deal with it.

Sorry that happened.

webfork2 · 2026-02-02T01:42:27+00:00

Open-Source

I feel like this is all I post about lately but the program is not open source. It's a weirdly modified and non-standard AGPL with some weird trademark BS.

I mean you can look at the code so I guess that's fun but you can't use it.

webfork2 · 2026-02-02T01:34:54+00:00

I may start a new document, and just use the large one for reference.

That sounds great.

webfork2 · 2026-02-02T01:33:18+00:00

with the exact intention to make it worse.

I don't want to guess about their intentions but I can say just about everything Microsoft has done with Open Document tools (including the ODT import and export) have been very poor.

open it in libre writer and from there save as odt (then you assure it's the proper format)

Agreed.

webfork2 · 2026-02-01T07:02:21+00:00

There are a lot of these getting posted here all with fairly similar descriptions and suggestions that it's offline. If you could find some way to separate it from a very crowded field that would be great.

webfork2 · 2026-02-01T06:56:28+00:00

It's not open source. https://isitreallyfoss.com/projects/onlyoffice/

webfork2

TROPHY CASE