Most RS apps will automatically sync the data to the remote storage, when it's changed on your desktop. And when you then access it on your laptop, even in a different app than on the desktop maybe, it would sync whatever you changed down from the remote storage.
The main difference is that the app developer/provider doesn't have to see, secure, or pay for storing user data. Users themselves are in full control of their data, and they can permit any app to access segments of it. Check out this comparison on the RS website: https://remotestorage.io/#explainer-unhosted
I use my RS accounts for exactly this, in combination with Huginn for example. It's super simple, because you just PUT or GET, with the bearer token for one segment (called "category" in RS) in the Authorization header. And you can also PUT things in the special /public category, so they're world-readable. Example: when I check in on Swarm, Huginn uploads the entire check-in data to my RS for archiving, as well as updates a public RS document with my current location, which my website then shows publicly: https://sebastian.kip.pe
Actually, this has been pretty much a non-issue for us in production over the last 5 years. As the reference JS client library works offline first, it'll just sync data whenever the remote becomes available again. In fact, that's a nice bonus for offline-first web apps in general, not just with remoteStorage.
Tent's goals sound similar on the frontpage, but are actually very different. It's more of a communication protocol than a a data storage one. This page is slightly more informative, albeit not much: https://tent.io/about
Tent is built around posts. Each Tent server stores a single user’s posts and sends copies to the user’s subscribers.
That's why you can choose a storage provider to do it for you. But as with email, you're not locked in to a single provider, and small ones will probably not scan your personal data using AI/ML algorithms, like e.g. Google does.
Edit: the library in question also supports using Dropbox and Google Drive, so your users don't even have to know about RS in order to sync your PWA's data to their own account with those.
> That's why you can choose a storage provider to do it for you. But as with email, you're not locked in to a single provider
I wrote this before I realized you're right:
> Yeah, I get it. But the real benefit, that outweighs the cost in time and attention, and maybe money too, is that you can control your data. Not having your own copy, and your own backups, or not having the technical ability to access relevant info in your data, as I'd expect the vast majority of people to not have, doesn't seem like it means that much effectively.
Thinking about email was what opened my eyes. Even tho most people don't understand email technically, it's a standard feature, effectively, that pretty much anyone can have a new email provider import their emails from their old provider. That's a big benefit and just that benefit alone is worth implementing something like RS for a lot of webapps, if not nearly all of them.
We'd be happy about any and all feedback and ideas about this specific topic. Our community forums are a good place for that: https://community.remotestorage.io
https://remotestoragejs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/getting-sta...