Skymir

Skymir is a native Google Drive sync client built specifically for Linux. It mirrors Google Drive folders to local disk so that your cloud files become real files on your machine rather than a virtual filesystem, and it keeps both sides in sync in both directions. It is aimed at Linux desktop users who need a working Google Drive client on distributions such as Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Debian, and Pop!_OS, where Google's own Drive for desktop application is not available. Alongside syncing, Skymir generates shortcuts for Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, shows sync status in a GTK system tray icon, and runs a background daemon that keeps everything up to date without user intervention. Google Drive for desktop runs on Windows and macOS only, so Linux users have long been left without a first-party client. Skymir's developers built the product after an accident: a sync run using rclone's bisync feature deleted 1,437 of their Google Docs while they were mirroring twenty years of files. rclone removed the native Docs, Sheets, and Slides as if they were missing files. The team emphasises that rclone is a great tool for bulk transfers, but keeping a working folder in sync with Drive's native documents turned out to be a different job. That experience shaped Skymir's safety-first design, which treats Google's native document formats as shortcuts rather than files that might appear to be missing. Skymir's core is true mirror mode. You can mirror your entire Google Drive, or only the folders you choose, and keep them in perfect sync with local disk. You can edit on either side and changes flow both ways, with full offline access to your mirrored files. Deletions propagate safely to the trash rather than being permanent, giving 30-day recovery on both sides. The app also includes a hard safety rule: a sync that would delete more than half of your files is refused. This max-delete safety is exposed in the General settings tab, alongside options such as sync interval, start-on-login, and exclude patterns. Google's native documents are handled differently. Skymir generates .gdoc, .gsheet, and .gslides shortcut files for every native Google Docs file in your Drive, so they are never treated as missing files. Double-clicking one of these shortcuts in Nemo, Nautilus, or Dolphin opens the live document in your browser, which means you can find and open a Doc the same way you open any other file on your desktop. Sync itself is quick and incremental: saving a file puts it on Drive within seconds, while changes made in Drive on the web, on your phone, or on another computer come down within about a minute. Skymir asks Drive only for what changed since the last check using the changes.list endpoint, so it never rescans your entire Drive. Skymir integrates with the Linux desktop through a native GTK tray icon built as a real AppIndicator3 applet that matches the theme of Mint, GNOME, Cinnamon, KDE, or XFCE. It shows sync status at a glance and provides quick actions: sync now, pause, open folder, and open settings. A Recent Activity window lists downloads, uploads, deletions, and shortcut creations with timestamps. At first-run setup a guided wizard walks you through Google sign-in and then offers two sync modes. Full Drive Sync mirrors your entire My Drive and automatically picks up new top-level folders you create later, the same model as Google Drive Desktop on Windows and Mac. Selective mode lets you choose exactly which folders to mirror, so you can leave large or noisy folders behind. You can switch between the two any time in Settings, and either way only My Drive is mirrored, since shared drives are not supported yet. Skymir was built from scratch on the Google Drive API, and it ships as a .deb package built against glibc 2.35. It installs from the skymir.app apt repository or as a direct .deb download, and runs on Ubuntu 22.04+, Linux Mint 21+, Debian 12+, Pop!_OS, elementary OS, Zorin OS and other Debian-based distributions. It has been end-to-end tested on Linux Mint 22.3, Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS, Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS, and Debian 13 "Trixie" across Cinnamon, GNOME, and KDE Plasma. Support for .rpm (Fedora) and Flatpak is planned after launch. A background daemon keeps everything in sync while the tray icon shows status, so the workflow is simply install, connect, and go. For users, the main benefit is that Google Drive behaves like a normal folder on Linux. Your files are real files on disk, not a virtual filesystem, so they are available offline and readable by any application. Local saves reach Drive in seconds and Drive-side changes arrive within about a minute, so working across a laptop, phone, and the web stays consistent. The safety measures, including shortcuts instead of missing files, trash-based deletion with 30-day recovery, and the refusal to run a sync that would delete more than half your files, are designed to prevent the kind of catastrophic data loss that inspired the product. Skymir also avoids vendor lock-in: if you uninstall it, your local files stay on your disk and your Drive content stays in Google Drive, with no proprietary format involved. Typical scenarios include mirroring an entire My Drive to a Linux workstation so that every folder is available locally and offline, and using Selective mode to mirror only the folders that matter while leaving large or noisy folders in the cloud. Because Skymir generates .gdoc, .gsheet, and .gslides shortcuts, users can browse a mirrored folder in their file manager and double-click a Google Doc to open the live document in a browser, which is useful for people who prefer working from the file manager rather than the Drive web interface. Since changes made in Drive on the web, on a phone, or on another computer arrive within about a minute, Skymir suits workflows where the same documents are edited from several devices. The Recent Activity window supports reviewing what was downloaded, uploaded, deleted, or turned into a shortcut. Skymir is aimed at Linux desktop users on Debian-based distributions who need Google Drive access, including people who previously relied on rclone's bisync, Insync, or overGrive. Pricing is a one-time $19 launch price with lifetime updates and no subscription. A 14-day free trial offers full functionality with no credit card and no account registration, just an email address for trial reminders and support replies, with the trial starting on first launch. All features are unlocked during the trial: mirror mode, tray, settings GUI, activity viewer, and the background daemon. One license activates one machine at a time, and you can move between computers at any time by deactivating on the old machine in Settings, License, Deactivate. A 30-day refund policy applies, and email support is available at support@skymir.app. Skymir is an independent third-party application built on Google's public Drive API and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Google. Skymir fills a gap Google has left open: a native Google Drive client for Linux. It combines true two-way mirroring, double-click shortcuts for Google Docs, quick incremental sync, and a themed GTK tray in a .deb package that costs $19 once. Its safety-first design, with shortcuts rather than missing files, trash-based deletes, and a max-delete guard, targets the data-loss risk that makes sync tools dangerous, while the 14-day trial lets Linux users verify it on their own distribution before paying.