The first messenger without user IDs, Other apps have user IDs: Signal, Matrix, Session, Briar, Jami, Cwtch, etc. SimpleX does not, not even random numbers. This radically improves your privacy.
Syncthing is used if it is not a one time transfer. LocalSend is mainly for one time transfer. LocalSend needs things to be in the same network. The same WiFi router is enough. Syncthing can send files over the internet also.
There are browser based alternatives like ShareDrop . These tools are not as reliable as Syncthing and LocalSend, especially when it comes to single large files (more than a few GBs), like ISOs.
For one time transfer over the internet, another handy tool is Croc . This one also suffers from the large file related issues.
I think this is very close to what you are looking for. Recently they have open sourced all their server side code also. Means currently they are completely open source.
OP, you may want to edit the title. It’s as other commenters mentioned. It is about Applebaum not the whole article.