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

[Kenneth P. Turvey]

On Mon, 03 Apr 2006 20:42:53 +0800, Michael T. Richter wrote:

> On Mon, 2006-03-04 at 00:42 -0500, Kenneth P. Turvey wrote:
> 
>> If you are looking for a backup solution for power users, you can stop
>> now.  They don't need another backup solution.
> 
> 
> If by "power user" you mean "geeks steeped in the UNIX attitude" then yes.
>  But that's not what I mean.  I mean, say, an accountant who messes around
> with his system on weekends by "power user".  As in a regular end-user
> with a bit more knowledge.  (In the UNIX world this typically means enough
> knowledge to really f*** himself over.)

I guess my definition of a power user is different than yours.  I
typically think of someone quite familiar with the system that typically
is hindered by security considerations, not inability to perform the task. 

The command, tar, probably isn't that difficult to learn, but I see your
point. 

> 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!

For most users it is sufficient.  Few users that are incapable of learning
to use tar are capable of really understanding when to use a full backup,
incremental backup, or file versioning.  They are better serviced by a
series of complete backups that are easy to locate. 

I read the discussion of the grandmother doing incremental backups earlier
and my first thought was that when she went to recover lost data she
wouldn't have the information to restore the complete state of the system. 

> 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.

I wouldn't expect all users to understand tar and friends, only the power
users we spoke of.  For everyone else a complete backup is really the way
to go, possibly excluding really big files that are backed up separately. 
Nautilus can do this without a problem.  

Multiple disk backups are an issue that isn't well dealt with by Nautilus.
I admit this is a shortcoming. 

-- 
Kenneth P. Turvey <kt-usenet at squeakydolphin.com>

XMPP  IM: kpturvey at jabber.org
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