Out of interest (because I have no experience with Mac), could you explain what Time Machine does that is different from a normal backup program - not counting the 3D GUI for restoring backups, which is pretty nice looking but not necessary for functionality
To be honest there is no Windows "system restore" or like you said mac "time machine" like backup program on any linux distro I've seen. I mean there are decent backup programs like rsync,tar,etc.. and I'm sure there are plenty with decent gui's(not that I've seen any distro other than opensuse with they yast module ship with one). but they have to be set manually by the user. or the user has to search for them and install them and their functionality is simply backing up select files/directories. what makes windows "system restore" different is that it's usually on by default, when you make any major changes you can simply create a restore point (don't have to pick any files,directories,etc...) and the system will automatically create a backup of all essential system files. It would be nice if we could have the same for opensuse. where users simply create restore points and we have preset list of binary files, configuration files (like for example /usr/bin /etc,....and a users ~/.kde4,etc....) and they all get backed up either when a user creates a restore point or when major system upgrades are done they system will automatically create a restore point. and programs can opt to have the system back them up by somehow telling the system "these are my binaries and here is where i store my configuration,etc..." I've broken my system plenty of times and system upgrades have rendered my system unusable ever since opensuse 11.2 and I've had to manually fix the issues. currently I have two opensuse installations and one of them acts like a "restore point" where if anything goes wrong with my system it has the last working setup of opensuse I've had and I simply copy over the files from that installation if anything gets really messed up. Linux desperately needs a decent usable backup interface. sure we can write shell scripts and cron but your average desktop user doesn't know how to. and I do think they yast backup module thingy is awsome. it just isn't as simple and to the point as windows system restore or mac time machine. and as far as guis are concerned ,most people don't care if windows are flying at you or you have a typical windows with typical buttons,radio,etc... or a web interface , since they won't create restore points frequently enough to care. P.S.: It's also be a nice option to have if we have a boot option just like fail-safe option but where users can boot to to restore their backups when the system is broken. and in opensuse 11.2 there was this very handy option on the cd/dvd where you can boot to it and it'll detect any anomalies on your system or broken packages,etc... and automatically fix them, it'd be handy to have that as a boot option on the grub menu too. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org