[ubuntu-uk] getting help - UK List

[treb0r]

On Wed, 2007-01-31 at 08:38 +0000, Alan Pope wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 30, 2007 at 02:38:11PM +0000, baza wrote:
> > On Tue, 2007-01-30 at 14:30 +0000, alan c wrote:
> > > London School of Puppetry wrote:
> > > > Hi Jonathan, I agree but I think the problem is wider than just us isn't 
> > > > it....I'm concerned that non-groupy types....like most of the ordinary 
> > > > world should be able to access Ubuntu and other OSS
> > > > and know that there is exactly the same expert support available as 
> > > > there is for Windows etc. Caroline
> > > 
> > 
> > > I give phone support (free) if asked, for local contacts.  I am not 
> > > any expert!
> > > 
> > > When I began with linux a few years ago, I was experienced with online 
> > > use getting help, but found my local LUG of limited value for a number 
> > > of reasons. I like the idea of very local help. Experience to date 
> > > suggests that it is only the very initial questions that need answers, 
> > > reassurance included.
> > 
> > The best advice anyone can give, IMHO, is to burn your 'home' directory
> > to CD or DVD every month, that way if you system does the big firework
> > you can reinstall and keep (most) of you data.
> > 
> 
> Heh, that might not be quite so easy for many people.
> 
> alan at wopr:~$ du -hs .
> 100G 
> 
> Maybe time to get one of those new fangled HD-DVD or BD burners ;)
> 
> Alternatively you could use a nice backup tool such as SBackup [0] or HuBackup [1] to selectively backup the stuff that is important 
> like documents, photos and email, skipping the less important stuff (and bulky stuff) like games (which can be re-installed) or (in my 
> case) qemu/virtualbox virtual machine images:-
> 
> alan at wopr:~/vm$ du -hs .
> 53G 
> 

While on the subject of backups, I find that a nightly rsync of my home
directory to strongspace hits the spot nicely. Not only is it secure,
it's (very) off-site too.

http://www.strongspace.com/

Rob