I found an open source (Free) app called SyncThing that gives you a Dropbox capability, but locally rather than depending on some cloud somewhere to charge you while they lose your data. It is global across the OSs, and I use it now on several Macs and Linux boxes, including RaspberryPi's.
Unlike iCloud, which buries the local folder, Syncthing just uses any folder that you want (defaults to Sync in the home folder). Also, unlike iCloud, there is no limit to what you can designate (pay for) to sync across systems, other than the hard drive sizes on your machines. If you designate a cheapo 4tb usb drive, for instance, on machines that have limited space,that problem mostly goes away.
As I tested it for a week or so, I suddenly realized that it can be used to attach Time Machine to your non-Macs, so to speak. I have a work folder that is used on all machines, mostly for programming, but also for some hobby documents, and anything that goes into it winds up on my M1 desktop TM. This has come in very handy a few times when my finger check overwrote a source file.
Of course, if you have only Macs, then the problem isn't really there, since a permanent share does the same thing, but for mixed environments it is a pretty neat app. So far I haven't hit any gotchas with it. Windows users will have to try it on their own - don't have one of those.
Unlike iCloud, which buries the local folder, Syncthing just uses any folder that you want (defaults to Sync in the home folder). Also, unlike iCloud, there is no limit to what you can designate (pay for) to sync across systems, other than the hard drive sizes on your machines. If you designate a cheapo 4tb usb drive, for instance, on machines that have limited space,that problem mostly goes away.
As I tested it for a week or so, I suddenly realized that it can be used to attach Time Machine to your non-Macs, so to speak. I have a work folder that is used on all machines, mostly for programming, but also for some hobby documents, and anything that goes into it winds up on my M1 desktop TM. This has come in very handy a few times when my finger check overwrote a source file.
Of course, if you have only Macs, then the problem isn't really there, since a permanent share does the same thing, but for mixed environments it is a pretty neat app. So far I haven't hit any gotchas with it. Windows users will have to try it on their own - don't have one of those.