Destroying "only" your home directory (was Re: Newbie question on permissions)

[Michael V. De Palatis]

On Mon, Apr 03, 2006 at 08:42:53PM +0800, Michael T. Richter wrote:
> > If you are looking for a
> > backup solution for a user that doesn't do command line or scripts,
> > Nautilus, among others, solves this problem for 95% of cases. 
> 
> 
> Nautilus doesn't do file versioning.  It doesn't do
> incremental/differential backups.  You can't flexibly include or exclude
> files.  It is not a backup solution.  It is a hideous hack!
> 
> Go talk to an actual end-user sometime.  Or, rather, instead of talking
> go and listen to an end-user.  Most end-users are tired of geeks talking
> at them.  Watch them, instead, try and use your "solutions" and see why
> end-users hate computers and the people who make them.

This is why I actually am sorta working on a project I'm calling
"Gnome Backup." In some sense, it's kinda like sbackup, only in the
end, I would like it to be a lot easier to use and more in line with
the Gnome "simple is good" philosophy.

Unfortunately, this project is perpetually in the early stages since
I'm a senior physics major, meaning I don't have a whole lot of time
right now to work on this. Hopefully over the summer I can get a
release out...

And while I'm talking about it, if anyone is interested in helping,
let me know --- Keep in mind I am by no means an expert at this kind
of stuff, so likely anyone willing to help is probably more qualified
than myself to begin with. It is being developed in Python because
that's Easy and Good(tm).

Finally, I do agree that the current state of backup systems for Linux
is rather abysmal. Things such as unison work great for users with
more experience in a Unix environment, but they can still be rather
difficult to use for newer users. This is just one of many hurdles
that Linux needs to overcome in order to become a viable desktop
system, not just for home use, but perhaps more importantly for
business use --- businesses actually tend to think about these types
of things more often, since lost data can equal lost money.

Mike