I spend way too much time trying to get software not officially support on PowerPC computers running. My latest project is Syncthing. Started in 2013 by Jakob Borg, Syncthing is promoted as an “opensource alternative to proprietary decentralized file sharing services” [1]. The biggest competitor is BitTorrent’s Sync application. The premise for both applications is the same. You pick a folder on your computer or mobile device you want to share to device or user. The application generates cryptographic identifiers that are shared and used for securing traffic. With BitTorrent Sync the identifiers are shared when you start the process of sharing a folder. For Syncthing they are shared when connecting devices together. In the end the result of secure end-to-end communication is accomplished by both applications, jus the roads are a little different.
I’ve been using BTSync for the past year as a way to keep a copy of a KeePass file synced between my computers and my Nexus 5. My KeePass file is something I don’t want to keep up on a service like Google Drive since the cloud is outside of my control. LastPass is a great service, but again, passwords are stored in the cloud and I like control.
The developers of Syncthing are doing a great job of updating the product and releasing versions for the major desktop platforms. Third-party developers have also stepped up and adapted Syncthing to run on Android and support for iOS looks to be on the roadmap [2]. One missing platform, however, is Linux on PPC. I know the market share of for PPC systems is microscopic even if you factor in IBM’s Power line of servers, some of Synology’s NAS products, and the Air Force’s PS3 cluster [3]. That is why I’m still surprised that BitTorrent released a Sync client for Linux PPC until April 2015 [4].
Enough back-story, here is how I got Syncthing running.
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