this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2023
33 points (83.7% liked)

Technology

59269 readers
3942 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

I just discovered it today and I'm considering setting it up to use instead of LocalSend. Have any of you used TailDrop before? I don't use TailScale so I'm not really sure I want to set it up just for sending files from my phone to my PC but the share menu options does seem convenient and it would be cool to be able to send any photos etc to my pc when I'm not home and have them their when I arrive sorta like I used pushbullet in the past.

all 18 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago

LocalSend is already so damn good that I don't know why I would ever use anything else.

[–] dpkonofa@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What benefit does this have over AirDrop? This seems like a more limited version of AirDrop with way more steps in-between. I’m asking this as well as someone who has a Synology NAS.

[–] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Not sure why the poster compared to AirDrop because it's not really similar.

AirDrop works over WiFi and can send to nearby devices (using their radios to connect directly, even in the absence of a WiFi network). It can be used with strangers' devices if they have theirs set to public mode — which has led to some unpleasant incidents as you can imagine.

Tailscale is primarily a private VPN network that you create only between your personal trusted devices, not strangers'. It works over the internet so it requires a working connection (of any kind). Its primary function is secure communication between your devices, for example you can do things like connect to services on your home server, assist a relative over remote desktop, use your home PC's connection when you're on hotel WiFi etc.

Tailscale is usually not something you keep going all the time but you can if you want, there's no penalty for doing it. It only uses the encrypted tunnel when you connect to another of your Tailscale-enabled devices.

I guess you could stay connected to your Tailscale all the time just so you can drop stuff between your phone and PC for example but it seems a bit overkill.

It's not hard to use btw, you just get their app, enroll it, and then it's just an on/off switch.

[–] dpkonofa@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But this isn’t just Tailscale. It’s Tailscale and Taildrop. What’s the Taildrop piece?

[–] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Taildrop is just an extra feature tacked on top of Tailscale, it's not a separate product. Normally each Tailscale node only does VPN tunneling, routing, and a bit of DNS. "Taildrop" is marketing speak for "now you can also transfers files between nodes".

They also have a feature where Tailscale acts as a SSH server if you don't already have one on that node. It's called... get ready... Tailscale SSH. That one wasn't a very exciting name.

But seriously, if it were easy they'd probably also add some sort of remote desktop, that would be really cool.

[–] nix@merv.news 4 points 1 year ago

It’s cross platform and you don’t have to be near the other device if I understand it correctly

[–] Polar@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago

I just use nearby share.

Have yet to try Taildrop but have a haiku:

With Tailscale Network. Decrease all your latency. Secure Peer to Peer.

[–] danielfgom@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No. I use Linux Mint which has its own Airdrop alternative called Warpinator. I can send files and photos between my phone and pc wirelessly. It doesn't do clipboard though, just files and photos but that's fine for me.

[–] nix@merv.news 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh I’ve never heard of this. Looks like they have a windows and ios beta too

[–] danielfgom@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes. I've only seen it on Linux Mint but it will be open source so you should find it in other distro repos too.

[–] zingo@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Its available as a flatpak for all Distros.

[–] danielfgom@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Oh yes that's right. I'm glad they have that but I only use Flatpak if I have no choice because they need so much storage and are slow to load.

[–] Fuzzypyro@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah. It’s pretty great I haven’t tried it on windows but from Linux, iPhone, Android and Mac it is pretty great.