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Geek Throwdown: How to sync two or more Macs?

Enter the Octagon

Here’s an experimental new feature: The Throwdown. Take a problem that lots of people face and tell us your personal favorite way to deal with it — in as much detail and with as much persuasion as you can muster.

Today, a lot of us are living on two or more Macs -- which is great, except for the challenge of keeping the contents and settings of multiple machines effortlessly in sync.

Now before you pop in, holler "dot mac," and jump back on your Segway®, consider that many folks (including your author) are looking for a lot more than simple document syncing and perfunctory preference sharing. How about if your needs are more nuanced:

  • Can it intelligently sync "~/Library" stuff like "Preferences" and "Application Support" for your apps (so that Quicksilver, for example, is with you and tweaked to perfection wherever you go)? Is it smart enough to know which items not to sync?
  • Can it do smarter comparisons than "which one is newer?" -- consider that someone on 4 or 5 Macs may run into complex versioning problems that currently make .Mac very confused. For text, can it do diff3-style merging?
  • Will it update often enough (and automatically enough) that I can trust when I sit down at a new machine, I'll know everything's up to date without checking (or manual re-updating)?
  • Can backups be easily automated? And is it easy to restore across all machines?
  • Does it work for people on airplanes? If your solution requires a live internet connection for active usage (e.g. traditional WebDAV), what happens when that access is no longer available?

You get the idea. You have a system; now tell us about it. Bow to your sensei, then spare no detail.

How do you sync your Macs?

rsync? ChronoSync? Synchronize? Unison? Something you made yourself?

What are using to sync your Macs, and how are you using it?

nomados's picture

Second notMac

I set it up this weekend, and except for a non standard apostrophe in one of my 4 Mac's names, everything has gone swimmingly.

My dotMac expired Saturday and while they say "About your expired account status You can continue to use your .Mac member name with .Mac Groups, iChat, or AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and you can access your .Mac Account page to manage your .Mac account password or update your alternate email addresses. However, the iDisk storage, web pages, screensavers, and iCal calendars for your .Mac account are no longer accessible to you or visible to others. As a courtesy, you will have access to your .Mac Mail until 15 days after your account expiration date. You will also have access to your Group Preferences page for .Mac Groups so you can arrange to transfer ownership of the group to another .Mac member for any .Mac group you own." on my dotMac login page. I can't get anything. Good thing I've already backed it all up.

notMac is open so anyone wanting to sync any non dotMac services/files/directories should be coming soon.

 
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