Maestral gave me a new Mac

Wanted to recommend an amazing piece of software. Has been mentioned on TBTalk before but think it deserves its own thread.

Maestral is an open source app that replaces Dropbox’s software and syncs your Dropbox folder to the cloud. I learned about it via Marco Arment on Accidental Tech Podcast. The reason it’s terrific is that Dropbox’s software is a memory and performance hog and I never knew how terrible it was until I switched to Maestral. I am living away from home for a few months and using an older 2015 PowerBook. I was about to get an M1 because the 2015 was choking – slow, fans cranking up, stalling performance. But now it’s adequate for my on-the-road needs and almost never spins up the fans.

Maestral is open source (!). Had a few bugs when I first installed it but after a couple of updates, it’s 100% stable and invisible. There are a few features it doesn’t have. The only one I care about is the ability to get a URL to share a file but I can go to Dropbox web or use a file sharing site when I need that.

Highly recommended.

(I still plan to get an M1 but now there’s no hurry.)

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