[sf-lug] What's the best way to sync two laptops?

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Michael Shiloh (michaelshiloh1010 at gmail.com):

> I now have two laptops which I'll use somewhat interchangeably.
> What's a good way to sync work between them?

rsync over ssh.

> How do you prefer to handle mail?

How *I* prefer to handle mail is an artifact of my basic approach to
computing, which most people do not share.  (I notice your use of
third-party webmail, for example.)  My basic approach is to do all my
substantive computing on my linuxmafia.com server, so all my mail
remains right there on the SMTP host, and I interact with it locally on
the server via instances of the mutt MUA running 24x7 under GNU screen
sessions that keep them running and accessible via ssh from wherever in
the world I am at the moment.

That happens to match my preferred computing model, and the fact that I
really like mutt.  However, for most other folks, that would not appeal.
(But you did ask.)

> If remote, how do you work with past messages when offline?

I don't.  That's the one drawback to my model (to the extent one might
wish to do e-mail offline, which I really don't).


> Years ago I remember reading about someone who had everything checked in
> to CVS, including all his email. This allowed him to sync his computer
> at home, work, elsewhere using CVS. Interesting solution.

Joey Hess, friend of mine.  Of course, any other VCS will work, and his
article in _Linux Journal_ (preserved on his Web site) about that used 
CVS for the implementation because it was indeed many, many years ago.
http://kitenet.net/~joey/cvshome/
Later, he used SVN:
http://onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2005/01/06/svn_homedir.html
http://kitenet.net/~joey/svnhome/
Today, Joey does it using git.

There's a mailing list and related wiki for people doing such things:
http://lists.madduck.net/listinfo/vcs-home
http://vcs-home.branchable.com/

You'll find via the wiki and mailing list simple recipes based on
people's experiences doing it.