Every year for our Readers' Choice survey, the venerable tool rsync gets votes for favorite backup tool. That never surprises us, because every time I need to copy a group of files and folders, rsync is the tool I use by default. It really has everything—local folder support, SSH tunneling support, delta-only synchronization, speed, versatility, and quite frankly, it's just a great program. It has everything—except a GUI.

Don't get me wrong; rsync works great without a GUI. I use it on the command line almost daily. The problem with rsync's amazing power is a rather complex set of arguments. It's possible to learn those flags, but for the neophyte user, they can be overwhelming. That's where Grsync really shines.

Grsync does a great job of turning countless command-line options into a manageable collection of check boxes and text-entry areas. When you add the nifty "sessions" feature that remembers settings along with source and destinations, it turns into the perfect filesystem sync tool. If you've ever felt rsync was powerful but too complex to use on a regular basis, I highly recommend Grsync. For making such a powerful tool accessible to the unwashed masses, Grsync gets this month's Editors' Choice Award. Now go copy some files! See http://grsync.sourceforge.net.