So first of all: I really appreciate that the feature has been added. To me it’s an act of respect to fellow writers. It acknowleges that everyone has their own way of working. It also acknowleges that, where possible, software should adapt to human needs, rather than the needs having to adapt to the software. As a result, everyone is discussing this topic from a position of choice. The button is (or rather will be) there and everyone can either use it or ignore it. Also makes this discussion much more pleasant.
@DEVINGANGER: I’ve tried this in the past, but guess what, it led to data loss. I ended up with different versions of my work on different machines, and started overwriting newer versions with older ones. Compare that to an SD card failing and having to replace it with last week’s backup: The result is virtually the same, except that I’ve overwritten my own work more than once, but have yet to lose any data to SD card failure. So, given my very personal circumstances, I have simply chosen the smaller risk.
@biblioman: I see substantial differences. Unlike your situation, all my writing machines live in the same household, which means I never have to carry SD cards around (which I consider risky). And all of my computers are old and fairly slow by modern standards. Like I tried to explain above, in many real-life scenarios I simply don’t have the time to boot up the computer I want to take with me and make sure the data is in sync. Means I either can’t take the computer at all (not being able to write is also a way to lose work) or I accidentially work on an outdated version (which has happened to me in the past). Yet another way to lose data. Switching SD cards, on the other hand, never gave me these problems.
Here’s an interesting anecdote about one-lane railroad tracks: They are always prone to human errors and horrible accidents, and no ever-so-sophisticated technical solution has been able to really fix that problem. Supposedly, the safest one-lane track is in India: They use some kind of huge ring, only one exists, and if you don’t have it, you can’t go, plain and simple. Easiest way to stop a collision with an oncoming train, and 100% foolproof. My SD card is like that ring, it’s a foolproof way to make sure I always work on the most recent version and it works better for me than any ever-so-sophisticated syncing technique possibly could.
And once again, any data storage can fail. Ironically, the biggest data loss I ever suffered was from a HD failure on my main computer. Lesson learned: If your work is important to you, always make backups, no matter where you store your primary copy. 