SugarSync

I wrote briefly about SugarSync here.  I’ve since been testing it.

Bluntly, I’m not happy at all.  and here’s why….

i am trying a sync between two computers and i get this on one computer

SugarSync reports that all files are in sync on this iMac

and this on the second

SugarSync reports quite a bit of work still to do...

this is the SAME ‘library’.  One client is reporting that sync is complete and the other that there is 3 DAYS to go to create a full sync.  This is SO misleading to be ridiculous. It shows that the clients do not upload the directory/file structure before the files.

I also got concerned about the type of upload: whether mods would be fully re-uploaded or whether the client would be byte-level aware and just upload the delta.  This is the response I got from the company behind SugarSync

2. SugarSync does not check the content of the file (to maintain privacy). When ever the file is modified, the whole file will be uploaded even though modifications are very less.

So … can’t get blunter than that (although the grammar could be significantly improved): these guys don’t do delta writes.  Way behind the curve there chaps. And to use privacy as an argument is just soppy. Machine privacy has a radically different risk profile than human privacy. I don’t care if the copy of MS Word on my Mac knows what’s in one of my documents and is able to compare one document against the other.  I care if Bill Gates does though. 

I’m wringing my hands here: why is keeping two (or n) computers in sync so difficult? Surely there’s a robust solution out there? HELP!