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On Tuesday, 23 February 2021 16:38:55 GMT Pentiddy wrote: > > Thoughts on how this might work would be great. I assume you cannot just > 'share' a home folder?!! The tradition Unix and Linux way for desktop machines was typically to network mount the home folder when the user logged in from a particular client, from a central file server. I've not done this for a long time, but I assume it will still "just work" assuming the protocol AND network for sharing the folder is robust (the traditional approach was NFS which was hideously insecure but worked, but it is a bit long in the tooth, I think NFSv4 was less insecure). You might need to ensure you don't use apps with over keen local databases behind them. Of course that assumes all the clients are running the same version of the operating system, and at consistent releases, and had consistent users & groups (usual via a NIS again long in the tooth, last time it was NIS+). Sometimes the OS files were mounted over the network to keep that quick and easy, and we had application servers with copies of applications mounted across the network (and you'd make these redundant so if one went down it would simply remount a different application server 30 second later). Thing is the more complex set-ups we did for dozens of users, or more at a time, so anything fixed or needing adjustment was usually well worth it as it made dozens of people's live better. Fiddly things like "Contacts" are still fiddly if you stand alone, but lots of software will do it out of the box. For my partner I got her a Chrome Book and Google does all this moderately well for millions of people (although they still have some stupid failings, like support for Google Photo is a bit rubbish). Although the very opposite of "off grid". In general you seem to be making a rod for your own back. Can she not just use the same laptop all the time? What is the motivation for syncing? I'd focus my efforts on making sure everything is adequately backed-up (possibly via the router) than fancy file synchronisation schemes that are fragile. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG https://mailman.dcglug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq