We last mentioned Picnic when the beta was released in June; now Objectpark software is shipping version 1. Picnic is a utility designed to allow you to synchronize folders you specify between two Macs on the same local network. By using Bonjour it requires little or no setup. Unfortunately, I see two major downsides to Picnic. First, it seems rather expensive. Each machine/user requires a license which are $29.95 each (though there are discounts when ordering multiple licenses, e.g. $55 for two). Compare this to the similar Martian Slingshot at $29.99 for use on all your personal computers. Second, it only works over a local network and not the Internet (though I suspect you could hack it together with Hamachi or another VPN solution).
A demo of Picnic is available for download.
[via MacNN]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-04-2007 @ 7:05PM
Fernando said...
A pineapple?
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9-04-2007 @ 8:02PM
Brian said...
Er, unison? http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/
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9-04-2007 @ 8:57PM
Adam Randall said...
So, what's different with this and rsync, which is built into OS X?
rsync -avu --delete /Source /Destination
Works over SSH:
rsync -avu --delete /Source user@10.0.1.1:/Destination
I use it for both backups and synchronizing music across machines.
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9-04-2007 @ 10:04PM
starwxrwx said...
Seems very pricey when rsync is free
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9-04-2007 @ 11:15PM
LD said...
rsync is ok, but it's not very friendly. rsyncX helps a bit, but it's still not that elegant for regular backups. Folks like us, computer geeks, can and do use it just fine. For the general public it's not a great solution.
Now, someone could and should write a little utility that combines rsync with cron and makes a tidy little schedule. Seems relatively simple, but I'm not a programmer.
Combine it with MacFUSE and symlinks and you could have some creative backup scenarios to local and remote hosts.
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9-05-2007 @ 3:38AM
jordan Merrick said...
I used the demo and whilst it was really simple to use, all the syncing was done using the user's Public folder. I was using it for some work files between laptop and desktop, so it could be a potential security risk as anyone can access the users public folder. Hopefully this changed but it was enough to put me off slightly...
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9-05-2007 @ 9:39AM
LD said...
FYI, I guess RsyncX does do scheduled jobs. So, um, that works for me!
Since rsync is available on all Macs (and therefore RsyncX) you could set it to sync two folders. Or you could sync anything you mount, for example a MacFUSE mount or a Windows or Linux share.
Much more functionality and much cheaper (free).
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9-05-2007 @ 10:36AM
Stephen Waits said...
Brian posted it, and you all ignored it. Forget rsync and its pretty friends.. this is a job Unison.
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9-05-2007 @ 11:09AM
Harzack86 said...
I'm using foldershare to sync folders between computers over the LAN or internet, including both Mac and PC: it works very well and it's free...
Therefore, I don't get the value added by Picnic :-)
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9-05-2007 @ 10:46PM
uros said...
Has anyone else noticed how Leopard-like that icon looks? Read: isn't pirouetting in the Leopard dock, as most other pre-Leopard icons do.
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9-09-2007 @ 10:56AM
andrew said...
music sync would be cool, but I honestly don't see how it's practical with iTunes....
I'm a Linux geek by day, so I'm no stranger to the command line :-)
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