{"id":964,"date":"2026-05-16T08:57:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T07:57:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainmentnews.site\/index.php\/2026\/05\/16\/localsend-puts-your-sneakernet-out-of-business\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T08:57:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T07:57:45","slug":"localsend-puts-your-sneakernet-out-of-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainmentnews.site\/index.php\/2026\/05\/16\/localsend-puts-your-sneakernet-out-of-business\/","title":{"rendered":"LocalSend puts your sneakernet out of business"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The topic LocalSend puts your sneakernet out of business<\/strong> is currently the subject of lively discussion \u2014 readers and analysts are keeping a close eye on developments.<\/p>\n

This is taking place in a dynamic environment: companies\u2019 decisions and competitors\u2019 reactions can quickly change the picture.<\/p>\n

FOSS It happens all the time. You have a file on one of your devices and you need to have it on another one. You could put the file on a USB flash drive and walk it over (the so-called sneakernet), you could email it to yourself, or you could try to set up some kind of network resource. LocalSend, a free open source tool, makes the process of sharing files on a LAN easier than anything else and it works on Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

The Reg FOSS desk is not routinely a fan of Apple fondleslabs. (We\u2019ve tried, but they\u2019re a bit too locked down for us.) Saying that, from what we\u2019ve heard, LocalSend is a bit like\u00a0Apple\u2019s AirDrop\u00a0but for grown-up computers and non-Apple kit. For Linux Mint users, it\u2019s a bit like the included\u00a0Warpinator\u00a0\u2013 and as that page says, don\u2019t search for it and go to warpinator.com, as it\u2019s a fake site.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a free download from its GitHub page and is also available in Canonical\u2019s Snap
\nstore and on
\nFlathub. You run it, and it gives that computer a cute nickname in
\nthe form of (adjective)+(fruit). Run it on two computers on the same
\nlocal network, and they should see each other. You click \u201csend\u201d on one,
\nand \u201creceive\u201d on the other, and that\u2019s about it: pick the file or
\nfolder, and off it goes. LocalSend isn\u2019t very big \u2013 the installation
\npackages are mostly around the 15\u00a0MB mark \u2013 so it\u2019s pretty fast to
\ndownload or install.<\/p>\n

This vulture found and tried it when we downloaded a just-over-4\u00a0GB
\nfile and then worked out we\u2019d downloaded it onto the wrong OS on the
\nwrong machine. It takes a good few minutes to download several gigabytes
\n\u2013 we live on a small, remote island, where our 100 Mbps broadband costs about four times what 1 Gbps broadband used to cost in Czechia \u2013 and it seemed
\nworth trying to transfer it rather than grab another copy.<\/p>\n

The gist of the idea is that LocalSend is quicker than using a USB
\nkey. You know the sort of process: find a big enough USB key, check it
\nhas space, copy the file onto it, eject it, go to the other machine,
\ninsert it, and copy the file off again. Even if it goes perfectly,
\nLocalSend is still less hassle. It\u2019s also easier than configuring some
\nkind of temporary folder-sharing setup between different OSes on
\ndifferent computers with different login names. (The Irish Sea wing of
\nVulture Towers recently moved house and has yet to finalize his office
\nlayout and reconnect his NAS servers. It\u2019s climbing to the top of the
\nto-do list, though.)<\/p>\n

LocalSend is also available on both the iOS App
\nStore and Google Play Store, so it can help for devices that you can\u2019t readily plug a
\nUSB key into. The transfer happens across your local network, so it
\nwon\u2019t use up bandwidth on metered internet connections, and will even
\nwork if your internet connection is down.<\/p>\n

Warpinator is Mint\u2019s solution \u2013 but in our case, we initially needed
\nto move the file from Windows to macOS. Both have ports of Warpinator,
\nbut both seem unofficial, and while the machines could see one another,
\nfile transfers failed.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve also tried SyncThing, but
\nit\u2019s not good at keeping machines in sync when they\u2019re rarely on at the
\nsame time \u2013 and we\u2019ve had problems with it recursively duplicating
\ndirectory trees into themselves so deeply that no GUI tool could delete
\nthem. Ideally, you should have an always-on home server that also runs
\nSyncThing \u2013 and if you have one of those, then for one-off file
\ntransfers, you don\u2019t really need SyncThing: just copy it to the server,
\nand off again.<\/p>\n

LocalSend just worked, and for us, it worked identically whether
\neither end was running Windows, Linux, or macOS. We couldn\u2019t ask for
\nmore.\u00a0\u00ae<\/p>\n