Syncronisation (PC & Mac)

mike peelmike peel
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
Hi all,



OK, I think it's pretty much decided that I'll be getting a new iBook in a month or so, when money comes in and the Jan exams end. I've had it with blue screens on this Time laptop... So, this means I'll be using both a PC desktop and a Mac laptop, and I'll want access to the same documents on both, regardless of where I am.



So, what's the best syncronisation software that can support cross-platform syncronisation? I want to be able to make modifications to documents on either machine, and have the version on the other computer updated too. Ideally, whenever I save, and whenever I come into range of the other computer (i.e. on the same LAN, be it wireless or wired). Oh, and it would be nice if it deleted stuff on the other computer that has been deleted on the first, too.



Any ideas? I'm hoping that this shouldn't be too much to ask, as it should be a fairly common thing to do. But I'm guessing that iSync won't be up to the job...



Thanks in advance.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 1
    thuh freakthuh freak Posts: 2,664member
    well, it may not be the best, and the more i think about it the more i realize it'll probably be more involved than you probably are lokoing for, but there's CVS (Concurrent Version System is what i think it stands for). CVS is a versioning system (predominantly for source code type stuff), but it could be used in your case. You see: one computer will house the "repository", which contains all the files, and all versions of the files. The repository can be on either computer, but would probably make sense to put it on the land locked one, or optionally on some third computer, perhaps a server with constant internet access (with that option, you could access the repository anywhere, and with ssh style security). The desktop and LT would add files, and "check in" revisions to files, to the repository. They each would also "check out" (or purge) files from the repository. You could set up a script to automatically check out the latest on a schedule, or whatever. There are many clients and servers, freely available for windows and mac (and a good many other operating systems). Mac OS X (i think) comes with a command-line client (aptly named "cvs"), and server (which requires a little bit of setup). The main benefit of cvs over other options (which i'm sure my ai brethren will chime in with), is that cvs maintains a history of the files. So, if you accidentally delete a paragraph in one, then realize that you needed it, even after you've checked it in and pushed it back to the repository, cvs has all the old versions (assuming they were checked in at some point).



    For me though, i only use cvs for programming, as i do little else. If you have a small number of files, its probably easier to just copy & paste them between samba shares.
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