Re: GNOME Feature Proposal: Backup

[Michael Terry <mike mterry name>]

On 10 May 2011 20:54, Mattias Eriksson <snaggen acc umu se> wrote:
> Looking at the screenshots and from testing some previous versions I
> have some thoughts. I think the schedule part of the settings is for
> advanced usage. By default I think a good backup program should monitor
> the file system for changes and do backup continuously, that way the
> user knows that everything is safe. Like if I connect my camera and
> import the pictures to my computer, I would like to just not have to
> care if the images are backed up or when they will be backed up.... I
> just want to delete the pictures on my camera knowing that a backup will
> exist as soon as possible.

I would tend to agree that from the casual user's perspective, they
just want a backup.  I've so far resisted adding anything fancier than
the ability to say "every week" or "every month" etc.  But since I
don't know how to do continuous detection well yet, I haven't done it.
 It would probably also want some design thinking for how to present
feedback to the user in a more continuous context.

> Also I think that a small status applet like on the mac would be great
> to have, since that will show the user that things are being backed up
> and provide a menu for the settings and forcing a backup.

There is a status icon used when backing up in classic GNOME.  I was
asked to remove it when the user is in the Shell.  So I suspect GNOME
designers would especially not like a status icon that is always
there.

> And a thought for future features... I saw that there were support for
> some cloud services for offsite backup, which is great! But is would be
> great for personal offsite backups (like http://www.crashplan.com/),
> where you install the software on multiple computers (your own or your
> friends) allowing them to store backup on each others disks.

Curious.  Any GIO target is supported, so I suppose you could point at
each other's machines if they are running SSH or some such, but that
isn't quite as integrated as you mean.

There is a long wishlist, but I've mostly been focusing on trying to
tighten the experience rather than feature work.

Thanks for your thoughts!

-mt