simple and easy way to sync folders over LAN

Summary: i'm using Ubuntu 12.04 on my laptop and on my desktop. I need to sync my data between these computers. I don't want a backup utility - i need a two-way sync.

What i tried already:

Using a cloud (Dropbox, Ubuntu One) is not an option because there's too much data to sync (~50 GB, 12000 files) - even if i purchased extra space, sending all this over the internet would take forever.

This task is really easy on Windows - i can just use FreeFileSync and a shared network folder. That's the user-friendliness i want.

Unfortunately, FreeFileSync doesn't work well with my Ubuntu, and apparently it cannot recognize a samba share address (it's the only way of sharing folders that i know how to setup).

DirSync Pro looks promising, but it throws an error when i try to run it:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: dirsyncpro/DirSyncPro : Unsupported major.minor version 51.0

Maybe it's because i have wrong Java, but unfortunately DirSync doesn't say what precisely i need. (i tried installing Java Runtime Environment from here, but it didn't work).

I don't want a command line tool, because i need an interactive way to view and set which files should be synced and in which direction.

I've already looked at this question. From what i see, nothing there suits my needs. Maybe i've overlooked something, but i've already spent a few frustrating hours trying to find a solution, configuring dependencies etc. without success.

A simple, foolproof solution please?

Solution 1:

You can just mount the samba paths as regular directories (have a look at the "mount" command), then use FreeFileSync.

Solution 2:

Have you tried Tonido? it's user friendly and even can sync with wi-fi and with smartphones and stuff. Has clients for Windows Mac and Linux, iOS and Android