Re: GNOME Feature Proposal: Backup

[Allan Day <allanpday gmail com>]

Hi Michael,

Michael Terry wrote:
> Hello!  You may remember me as the bloke that proposed the Déjà Dup
> backup tool as a GNOME module a little back, right as modules were
> being reorganized.
> 
> I've been encouraged to try again as a Feature.  I don't fully
> understand the process, but I gather an email to this list starts it
> off.

It's great that you're reapplying for inclusion, and backup would be
good to have. I'm really happy that you want your software to be a part
of GNOME.

> Here's a quick thousand foot view:
>  * Homepage here:  https://launchpad.net/deja-dup
>  * It's a backup program aimed at non-technical users.
>  * It's a graphical wrapper and policy manager for the backup program duplicity.
>  * It's included by default in Fedora 13 on and will be default in Ubuntu 11.10.
>  * It follows the GNOME schedule and best practices already.
> 
> For the next major version (20.0), I've done a redesign aimed at
> making it more "invisible" and appear as part of the OS. 

That sounds like the right approach to me.

> I've made it
> live just as a control center panel and removed some branding to look
> a bit less like a separate app.  See
> http://live.gnome.org/DejaDup/Screenshots/Future for screenshots.
> Déjà Dup 19.1, which includes those changes, is already in Fedora
> Rawhide and will be in Ubuntu Oneiric once we land the GNOME 3 control
> center.

This looks like an improvement on the UI that you presented the last
time you proposed Deja Dup. It could still be much better though. How
would you feel about paring it down to something more minimal? Ideally,
the UI should be limited to switching it and on/off, selecting the
backup storage location, and giving an idea of status (a little 'hey,
you're backups are fine!').

I do think this should be part of system settings, provided Deja Dup
behaves like it is part of the system.

One question: I know that you had a discussion on the usability list
about renaming Deja Dup. Would you be happy to remove the remaining
references to Deja Dup in the UI and just call it Backup?

> I suspect GNOME might be interested in having a "backup story" so I'm
> offering this one.  And I'd be happy to have increased design advice
> and developer eyeballs.

As others have suggested, that story should roughly be 'backup that just
works': you switch it on, do some very minimal configuration, and then
it takes care of itself in the background.

> I have a few related questions:
>  * What does being a GNOME Feature obligate me to?  Basically the
> normal module stuff?

(Since no one else has answered this question...) In this case, yes (I
think!)

Best wishes,

Allan

-- 
Blog: http://afaikblog.wordpress.com/
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