[geeks] Apple and backup habits of users, was Re: windows backup software

[Shannon]

On 25-Mar-2013 23:28, Doug McLaren wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 05:21:26PM -0400, Shannon wrote:
> 
> | No backup server at the moment, and there are some features I want
> | rsync doesn't do for me.
> 
> Out of curiousity -- what?

Specific and dated snapshots, easy exclusion rules (i.e. not manually
entered), shell integration are some I want from time to time. Also
rsync is a copy rather than backup files.

Sometimes I actually want the backup to be package file rather than yet
another filesystem.

> That said, Apple deserves some credit for Time Machine.  They may have
> just re-used existing ideas, but they put backups front and center
> even for home users -- where they belong.  They made it easy.

Time Machine was rather prominently advertised as a totally new thing
Apple made, that is what I mean. Written up as if none of it had ever
been possible before. That's just typical of their ad copy.

I agree that it was a really good thing, getting users to start doing
backups, and they made it easy. Microsoft needs to do a much better job.
Their default backup works in minimal fashion, but its horribly
presented to the user.

The other Windows issue is how data is scattered all over the place. Its
hard even for a professional to figure out where application data is,
and sometimes the various "features" of Windows actively fight any kind
of sane restore method.

I once restored some data where the application had it under AppData
under a hash key. The restore triggered the application to create a new
hash key and start completely over, ignoring the data I restored.

In other cases virtual store created yet more shadow copies instead of
restoring where I needed it.

The whole system is a maddening mess.

> Grandma is likely to have useful backups now, set up on her own,
> without being prompted to do so by her geeky grandkids.  That's huge!

True, and its easy and prominent enough that people actually use it.

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