An unofficial BitTorrent Sync GUI for Linux was released today, providing almost all the features available in the official Windows and Mac BTSync GUI.
BitTorrent Sync is a tool that can be used to automatically synchronize files between computers using the BitTorrent protocol, available for Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and NAS devices.
Because it synchronizes the files directly between computers (so without using cloud servers) and the connection is encrypted with a AES cypher and a 256-bit key created on the base of your Secret, BTSync is advertised as a highly secure way of synchronizing your data. However, because the application is not open source, many will argue with this statement.
More about BitTorrent Sync: Technology | Desktop Manual
More about BitTorrent Sync: Technology | Desktop Manual
Now back to the GUI: BitTorrent Sync comes with a GUI for Windows and Mac, but on Linux there's only a WebUI you can use to control BitTorrent Sync. For this reason, Leo Moll has created an unofficial BitTorrent Sync GUI for Linux. Ubuntu users will also get an AppIndicator (was available for some time) which displays the sync status, can pause the sync, etc.
BitTorrent Sync GUI features:
In my test, I didn't find any bugs, but there are a few things that couldn't be implemented in the BTSync GUI, due to missing API: you can only see the active transfers speed, but not what's being transferred and also there's no transfer history yet.
- add / remove local and remote folders, generate folder (including QR code for mobile devices);
- displays a list of connected devices and their status;
- displays the upload / download speed;
- change the device name ;
- option to limit the upload / download speed;
- option to use NAT UPnP port mapping;
- option to set listening port;
- advanced preferences: folder rescan interval, limit local peers, encrypt lan data and more.
In my test, I didn't find any bugs, but there are a few things that couldn't be implemented in the BTSync GUI, due to missing API: you can only see the active transfers speed, but not what's being transferred and also there's no transfer history yet.
Install BitTorrent Sync with an unofficial GUI in Ubuntu / Debian
1. Add the unofficial BitTorrent Sync repository
To add the unofficial BitTorrent Sync PPA in Ubuntu and derivatives (Linux Mint, elementary OS, etc.) as well as in Debian, use the following commands:
sudo apt-get install curl
sh -c "$(curl -fsSL http://debian.yeasoft.net/add-btsync-repository.sh)"2. Then, install BitTorrent Sync along with the GUI:
- with Ubuntu AppIndicator (the difference is that this package installs the AppIndicator dependencies):
sudo apt-get install btsync-guisudo apt-get install btsync-gui-gtkUpdate: Arch Linux users can now install BitTorrent Sync GUI via AUR.
Report any bugs you may find @ GitHub.
