Both run EOS. Both are Dells. One is a laptop, and the other is a desktop. Laptop is a Precision 5520, and the desktop is a xps 8940. I don’t want to do anything fancy. I just want to be able to drag and drop files to and from one another. I prefer a gui method, but will go the cli route if I have to.
Provided there is a network available (usually sourcing the internet for you) - then multiple ways are there to be used. I personally just use SSH connections when needed. While rsync can be done, or other command line copy methods, there are GUI versions of rsync (grsync) or my normal tool, filezilla which gives you mouse access to source and destination trees for moving files.
Fancy methods also exist (Samba and NFS and…) but need more setting up than SSH, so I usually avoid them! Mostly I just need to move files between local machines, and Android devices, so I am completely covered (so far!)
Is the internet absolutely necessary? I mean the file transfer is just to another computer in the same room. I suppose a simple usb connection is asking for too much, but it seems like something like that would have been developed by year 2024.
No if it’s just two computers in the room you won’t need internet, you will be using your LAN(Local Area Network). Or are you talking about how to transfer two files between computers when there is no network connection between them?
If you just want to occasionally copy files between the PCs I would recommend to use sshfs. The good thing about sshfs is, that you can mount remote directories as a normal user. The only thing you need is a working ssh connection between the PCs. And if you exchange ssh kyes between the PCs you can even mount without password.
This is the script I use to mount my remote home:
#!/usr/bin/zsh
# remote host name is "unten"
# mount point is subdirectory named "unten"
DIR=/home/matthias/unten
if [[ ! -d $DIR ]]; then
# make sure the mountpoint exists
mkdir $DIR || exit
fi
# mount with sshfs
sshfs matthias@unten:/home/matthias $DIR
# open the mountpoint with the standard file manager
xdg-open $DIR
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syncthing is nice and built just for this. I run this on my devices and they have a common shared folder. This has completely eliminated use of USBs to move files around.
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There are a million and one ways to do this. Probably a million and two.
If someone asks and I’m feeling especially lazy and don’t want to teach someone about ssh and so on I just suggest Warpinator, which lets you send files from wherever to wherever. Doesn’t let you pull up and download them remotely though so may not be the magic bullet solution you’re after, but it’s certainly the least friction to get up and running if you don’t want to learn anything more detailed and you’re doing most/all of your traffic in one direction.
Nice easy GUI, no frills. Make sure to turn off approval in the settings if you want to do this without having to physically move between machines accepting files.
Personally if it was going to be a long-term back and forth I’d set up network shares on both machines with SMB or NFS so they can be browsed and read/written from both ends within your file manager of choice.
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