LANDrop, the best alternative to Apple's AirDrop allows you to send files from and to almost any device

LANDrop on Linux

I don't want to lie to anyone by saying that I use a lot of something that I actually use little or not at all. When I want to send small files from one device to another, I usually pull Telegram, a messaging application that is available for any device and that I almost always have open. But Telegram has its limitations, and among them we have that the size of the files cannot exceed 2GB for non-premium files and that the transfer speed is not the best. For larger files you already have to look for alternatives, and one of the best I've found is called LANDRop.

If we analyze the name, it is easy to understand what it is for. LAN refers to our network, and Drop is no longer the suffix with which all applications of this type end since Apple launched its AirDrop. Much of what the apple launches is fine, but it is only compatible with its devices. It is of no use to me if I want to send a file over my network from my laptop with Linux. There are alternatives, but they all limp on one leg or the other. Or almost all.

LANDrop improves Linux Mint's Warpinator

It's been a while since Linux Mint introduced us to warpinator. It is an application that serves exactly the same purpose, but right now there is no official version for Android or Windows. There is a version for iOS/iPadOS, but it's in beta (only available via TestFlight) and it's not official either. Besides, Warpinator pulls a bunch of python dependencies, or forces us to install a flatpak version that, if we don't have other packages installed, also installs something else. On the other hand, we can pull snapdrop o sharedrop, a couple of options that work from the browser, but in both cases the speed and stability leave much to be desired.

All these little "buts" are dispelled if we opt for LANDrop. It is not an application that has just been released, in fact it has been over two years that circulates on GitHub, but it is something that I just tried and it surprised me for good. To begin with, because from its download page we can download an AppImage, a single file that works out of the box and without installing anything. To continue, because there are applications for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS/iPadOS, which, with the permission of some less used systems, makes it multiplatform really.

How does it work

LANDrop works in a similar way to Warpinator or other tools that try to send files over our network. Once opened, and if we have accepted the messages that can appear on some devices, we will see who is connected to our network. By clicking on send (or “send”, because it is in English), we can choose to which device, from which we will have to accept the shipment. Once we accept, we will see a progress bar that is going quite well, fast and without problems.

Icon in the system tray

The Linux version (I haven't tested on another desktop OS) opens in the system tray, and it is from this tray from where we will manage the shipments. The settings that we can tweak are rather few: if we spread our name so that they can discover us or not, choose the name of our device, the download path and a port. But leaving everything by default, the truth is that it works perfectly.

How to install LANDrop on Linux

As we have mentioned, LANDrop is available as AppImage, so it can be used without installing anything. It would be enough to download the file and run it. On the other hand, if you prefer to have the application installed in the operating system, you can do it by following these steps:

  1. Dependencies are dropped. On Debian-based operating systems, such as Ubuntu or Linux mint, lobsodium can be installed with the command:
sudo apt install libsodium-dev
  1. Then you have to clone the repository and install the software by typing the following:
git clone https://github.com/LANDrop/LANDrop Run the following commands mkdir -p LANDrop/build cd LANDrop/build qmake ../LANDrop make -j$(nproc) sudo make install
  1. It can be run by typing “landrop” or from the distribution's app drawer.

And once installed, it doesn't matter where you want to send or receive the files. LANDrop will send them if you are on the same network.

Official website, here.


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  1.   FRANCO said

    It has not been updated since June 2021.