I think of Sharedrop every time HN has a discussion about how the web has gotten too complicated and it should just all be documents etc etc… here’s a truly useful app, cross platform out of the box, neatly sandboxed with no download required. If I was feeling paranoid and wanted to know if my files are being sent to some third destination I’d be able to open up dev tools to check. A lot more challenging with a native app.
"If I was feeling paranoid and wanted to know if my files are being sent to some third destination..."
then I would not use a third party website. I would want to prevent this unauthorised transmisison to a third party from happening rather than discover it was already happening. By then, it would be too late. Even just having all one's transfers, IP, time, date, possibly browser fingerprint, be recorded in someone else's httpd access log seems unnecessary.
But I'm not feeling paranoid. Rather, I like downloads. I like so-called "native apps", otherwise known as programs. I like them written in certain languages. I like to read and edit the source code and to compile static binaries. I enjoy it. Javascript is not one of the languages I prefer. Nothing against it. I just don't have much need for it if I want to transfer files.
I'm playing devil's advocate a little, but this doesnt mean it doesnt send your files to a third party, it just means it also sends them locally as advertised
Can someone please explain to me why sharedrop does not work with VPN / TOR?
Does anyone know of any alternatives that work with VPN / TOR?
I love the fact that sharedrop is open source, you can host it yourself, it works without registration/login and you don't need to install anything except a browser.
VPN/TOR will traditionally take over all connections and route them through its own tunnel. Yes the tunnel does go over the LAN/WLAN but it does not interact with the LAN/WLAN directly and this is a good thing because it means that everything is sent protected to the VPN/TOR tunnel you use.
> If I was feeling paranoid and wanted to know if my files are being sent to some third destination I’d be able to open up dev tools to check. A lot more challenging with a native app.
The reason we're generally "paranoid" about running arbitrary code in the browser is that every fucking website wants to run arbitrary code in the browser, not because an app that actually has a reason to do it, does.
A website should just be a document when it is just a document, which is 95%+ of the content linked on HN.
I think there should be three modes, one mode for documents and two modes for apps. Right now the document "mode" is too overpowered while the "app mode" is under-powered. If the user switches to "app mode" it should give the website access to the web API's, while in document mode it should only be possible to manipulate the DOM. The second app mode should make the app more "native" like and unlock more API's. Or we should just fork the browser into two programs, one for documents and one for app runtime.
https://www.sharedrop.io/
I think of Sharedrop every time HN has a discussion about how the web has gotten too complicated and it should just all be documents etc etc… here’s a truly useful app, cross platform out of the box, neatly sandboxed with no download required. If I was feeling paranoid and wanted to know if my files are being sent to some third destination I’d be able to open up dev tools to check. A lot more challenging with a native app.