Martchus / syncthingtray

Tray application and Dolphin/Plasma integration for Syncthing
https://martchus.github.io/syncthingtray/
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I don't understand #272

Closed allanonmage closed 3 weeks ago

allanonmage commented 3 weeks ago

I'm a long time Windows user, and am coming from SyncTrayZor. I've tried out your software and I don't get it. I've never been able to make Linux work for me, get hired as a dev, nor make friends in the dev community. Maybe I'm missing something though, so I'm here to figure this out.

I'm using this version: https://github.com/Martchus/syncthingtray/releases/download/v1.5.4/syncthingtray-1.5.4-x86_64-w64-mingw32.exe.zip

So, I have to ask, what's the point? Are you a Linux user that just so happened to compile the project for Windows? I don't see the value add for your software vs just running the service in the background and connecting to the web GUI.

Most importantly, I can't recommend this to nontechnical people, which means I can't install this on their machine for us to use together, because guiding them through it over the phone would be a nightmare. I'm the dev and techy guy in my circle, and I can't figure out your software, so it's certainly useless to them.

Martchus commented 3 weeks ago

Your software doesn't have a webview of the Syncthing web UI, but does have it's own UI that doesn't appear to actually do anything regarding setting up Syncthing things. Getting to the Syncthing UI to do Synchthings is more cumbersome than saving a bookmark.

It has a web view but not the binaries I provide for Windows as I'm not going to distribute a web browser. You can make it use the app mode of e.g. Edge in the settings.

You are so over-articulate and over-technical on your github, download page, and in the UI of the program that I have no idea what you are saying most of the time.

Too bad but I'm not going to dumb-down the wording. I already provide a less technical overview on the website but this is as "dumb" as it gets.

Endless referrals to other things is a terrible way to do documentation. I had to go to 3 or 4 different pages to figure out why the executable wasn't working. Turns out I didn't have the GUI version, even though it looked like it was on the releases page.

I know but the effort I can spend on documentation is limited. A single, simple markdown document makes things easier on my side.

Portable software does not make files outside of it's own directory.

True - but like Syncthing itself Syncthing Tray is not portable software in that sense. Not having an installer does not mean it is portable software. (Just for the record: There is a way to make it portable, see https://github.com/Martchus/syncthingtray?tab=readme-ov-file#location-of-the-configuration-file.)

So, I have to ask, what's the point? Are you a Linux user that just so happened to compile the project for Windows? I don't see the value add for your software vs just running the service in the background and connecting to the web GUI.

To have a tray icon. To not have a terminal window around. Quick access to most important features without opening the web UI. If you don't value/need any of these you are indeed better off just using Syncthing on its own.

Most importantly, I can't recommend this to nontechnical people, which means I can't install this on their machine for us to use together, because guiding them through it over the phone would be a nightmare. I'm the dev and techy guy in my circle, and I can't figure out your software, so it's certainly useless to them.

Probably true but that was never the goal of this software and still is not the goal. I have never stated anywhere that this software is targeting nontechical people so I am seriously wondering how you could ever come to that impression. I mean - you state it yourself - my wording clearly suggest otherwise.

Note that this is really not a "bug". If this is not the type of software you're seeking you should probably look elsewhere. So I'm closing this issue as this is nothing I will work on.

Martchus commented 2 weeks ago

One more remark on:

and am coming from SyncTrayZor

I had checked out SyncTrayzor and QSyncthingTray before I started to create Syncthing Tray. I did not just use them (or contributed to them) because they clearly had a different focus than what I had in mind. It is unfortunate that SyncTrayzor and QSyncthingTray have been (more or less) abandoned and now people migrate to Syncthing Tray and expect it would be a replacement which it was never meant to be.