Can I sync files between computers without the cloud storage?

Solution 1:

There is a command-line program called rsync which is able to efficiently synchronize data between different computers over a network (or between folders on the same machine). If you're not afraid of command line, you can use that straight away.

There are also numerous wrappers around rsync, such as Conduit, GRSync, gtkrsync, unison, luckybackup, mrb and possibly others. They all available in Ubuntu repositories so you can just install them via Software Center and see which one you like most.

Those applications are not specific for Ubuntu 11.10 and have been available for quite a while.