Linux Mint adopts Timeshift from overworked original developer

The Linux Mint XApps suite of cross-desktop accessories has a new member – the Timeshift backup tool. The Linux Mint blog post for June revealed that Mint team lead Clement Lefevbre recently took over maintenance of the Timeshift backup tool used in Linux Mint. Timeshift is akin to Windows System Restore in that it …

[VoiceOfTruth]

-> the Timeshift backup tool

Timeshift is a useful tool. But it's not some piece of magic that can't be done using cp, dump, tar, pax, rsync, together with cron.

-> a new meta-distribution of Xubuntu called Zinq

In a vacuum, bombarded by electrons? It must be a candidate for YALD Of The Day (YALDOD) award.

-> Since there's been no 22.04 release of UMix, we're guessing that Zinq has effectively replaced it.

Guessing, a bit like "I feel it in my bones", or "I read it in my tea leaves". Answers on a postcard to YALD Guess, Some Street, Some Town.

-> a native .DEB-packaged version of Firefox

Seriously, why is this even a selling point? Mac software coming in dmg or pkg instead of tar balls? Windows programs having an exe extension.

-> the GNOME Bluetooth development team who simply does not want to have users from other desktops than GNOME

Welcome to the GNOME community. You're not in our club, eff off. But enjoy our new text editor. Shiver me timbers.

[demon driver]

Timeshift is a useful tool. But it's not some piece of magic that can't be done using cp, dump, tar, pax, rsync, together with cron

Two things make the difference: 1. On a btrfs partition, it uses file system snapshots and is correspondingly fast ("BTRFS snapshots are perfect byte-for-byte copies of the system. Nothing is excluded. BTRFS snapshots can be created and restored in seconds, and have very low overhead in terms of disk space", as the original author says). 2. It maintains a concise, user friendly catalog of snapshots, to be quickly and easily restored on a click of the mouse in case it becomes necessary.

a native .DEB-packaged version of Firefox—Seriously, why is this even a selling point?

Because Canonical, like already earlier with Chromium, recently has switched to Snap for packaging Firefox in Ubuntu, if you want Snap or not. Derived distros move to build and offer their own packages for Chromium or Firefox as a service for users who don't want them as Snaps.

[VoiceOfTruth]

-> On a btrfs partition,

If you trust btrfs... There are plenty of contrary opinions about. Some say it is reliable, some say otherwise. That's not a good endorsement.

-> Because Canonical, like already earlier with Chromium, recently has switched to Snap for packaging Firefox in Ubuntu

But so what? Is it really such a big deal? Not only do people whinge about different package managers, they now whinge about certain apps being in snaps or debs. Do you really think that a lot of people really care about this? Let me tell you, about 99% of anyone coming from a Windows or Mac would not care tuppence if a program is in a snap, flatpak, deb, rpm, or whatever. They just want to use the sodding browser.

[Anonymous Coward]

btrfs FUD

You should probably look at the date when these "contrary opinions" were published. These days, the only scenario where btrfs might not be reliable is when combined with RAID 5 and a power failure happens while writing and causes affected RAID stripes to become unsynchronised. (source: https://btrfs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/btrfs-man5.html#missing-incomplete-support)

I use ZFS for this kind of redundant storage, coupled with a UPS, ECC memory on the server and regular scrubs.

For all other use cases, like my work and personal desktop machines, I've run btrfs for years now and have never experienced any failure caused by btrfs. The snapshot functionality that it provides is invaluable for both timeshift backups of my root filesystem and for urbackup to create snapshots when backing up user partitions.

I can happily say that I trust btrfs for both personal and professional use.

[VoiceOfTruth]

Re: btrfs FUD

-> You should probably look at the date when these "contrary opinions" were published.

How about right now this minute? https://www.suse.com/support/kb/doc/?id=000018769.

Please stop spreading FUD that btrfs is a reliable file system.

-> I can happily say that I trust btrfs for both personal and professional use.

Then you are a mug.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: btrfs FUD

The page to which you link was created on the 24th of October 2016 It does not document any known bug, it merely talks about the tools used to recover a damaged btrfs filesystem and was last updated over a year ago with information about how to obtain the latest btrfs repair tools from the latest service pack iso. Neither does it attribute the cause of any damage exclusively to bugs in the btrfs code.

All file systems can experience corruption and the causes of that corruption can come from many different sources.

Instead of insulting people who disagree with you, present up to date and verifiable information confirming your statements. If all you have is baseless assertions and FUD-mongering then I'd suggest that you put a sock in it and refrain from insulting people as an argumentation technique.

[IGotOut]

"-> the Timeshift backup tool

Timeshift is a useful tool. But it's not some piece of magic that can't be done using cp, dump, tar, pax, rsync, together with cron."

And there ladies and gentlemen, in a nutshell, is why Linux is seen as not being user friendly.... Despite MINT doing their best.

[Throatwarbler Mangrove]

"And there ladies and gentlemen, in a nutshell, is why Linux is seen as not being user friendly.... Despite MINT doing their best."

This. There are still plenty of furry-toothed geeks in the world who believe that making technology easier to use is somehow catering to the weak and stupid. And, of course, there's a sizeable contingent of people who always need to weigh in with, "Why do you even need that? Why not just do <infeasible/difficult/complex/irritating/primitive/incompatible thing> instead?" without contemplating that other people have different needs, capabilities, interests, and desires. "Why do you need a dishwasher? When mine broke, I just smeared soap on my penis and used it to clean my dishes; they may not get as clean as before, but now I save time masturbating!"

[Someone Else]

Geez! - - - ->

[Sandtitz]

"Why do you need a dishwasher? When mine broke, I just smeared soap on my penis and used it to clean my dishes; they may not get as clean as before, but now I save time masturbating!"

Just be careful with the cheese grinder...

[Anonymous Coward]

The world has gone to hell since we stopped writing assembly language and reading machine language.

9E (HIO)

[julian.smith]

One troll doesn't make Linux unfriendly

Timeshift IS very user friendly

Easy to set up

Runs seamlessly in the background

Restore is trivial and fast

[Rob Daglish]

Exactly what I wanted to say, thank you. I regret I can upvote this comment only once...

[Rob Daglish]

I'm taking a journey to my nearest city, Carlisle, today. I won't use my car and do it simply and easily in 50 minutes, I'll take a taxi ride to the nearest station, wait for the train, and then catch a bus at the other end to get where I want to go, which shouldn't take any more than around 3 hours and cost around twice what taking the car does...

I get your point that there are multiple ways of achieving the same goal, but sometimes ease and convenience win out and most of the computer users I meet would struggle to master one tool to the extent needed, never mind getting to grips with 6.

Making life easier for them does not stop you doing it your way, unless the problem is you feel a bit redundant if people don't need your expertise?

[JassMan]

@voiceoftruth

-> a native .DEB-packaged version of Firefox

Seriously, why is this even a selling point? Mac software coming in dmg or pkg instead of tar balls? Windows programs having an exe extension.

Its a selling point because in general .deb packages are small and concise, can be checked for the presence (or lack) of required dependencies and are generally understood by many tools. The fact that firefox is the the native version, means that canonical won't have messed with it and included privacy busting telemetry like they tried a few years ago. [Maybe they still do but I haven't used anything except mint for several years now]

[VoiceOfTruth]

Re: @voiceoftruth

And that's it? That's the selling point? Like I couldn't go to the Mozilla web site and download it? Come on, it's so basic that it is not a selling point.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re:Like I couldn't go to the Mozilla web site and download it?

Sure you could. But I thought you generally tend to *want* things to be simpler and friendlier in linux.

If the distro re/packs firefox, that means it gets updated along with everything else - possibly automatically - when you (or cron, or whatever) runs "apt-get update dist-upgrade", or the equivalent for your distro.

[Rabbit of Caerbannog]

Re: @voiceoftruth

If I wanted to go and download stuff from random websites iw would still be using windows. How that is got to the 21st century without proper software management is beyond me.

[Pascal Monett]

Re: @voiceoftruth

And you couldn't post that as a reply ?

[julian.smith]

Dumbest comment of the year?

"Timeshift is a useful tool. But it's not some piece of magic that can't be done using cp, dump, tar, pax, rsync, together with cron."

Timeshift means you don't have to learn and configure "cp, dump, tar, pax, rsync, together with cron"

It is a great set and forget solution to the backup / restore problem. Works seamlessly in the background

THEN

when you really, really need it it does a full system restore in around 5 minutes from an SSD

Every time it saves my systems I send TJ $10 - best investment I ever made

[VoiceOfTruth]

Re: Dumbest comment of the year?

-> Timeshift means you don't have to learn and configure "cp, dump, tar, pax, rsync, together with cron"

Sure. But users still have all the dubious fun of using the mind boggling apt to install 'a native .DEB-packaged version of Firefox'. If a user cannot learn to use cp, they have no chance with the Telegraph crossword level obscurities of apt. hahahahaha, he laughs.

[JamesTGrant]

It’s nothing you couldn’t do…

By spending a LOT of time doing development, including a huge amount of testing. Or you could lash some BASH together in the hope that whatever causes you to need your backup is a use case your DIY scripts don’t fail to cope with. Two reasons not to - a) hopefully your time is more valuable to you. b) if you’ve gone to the trouble then your data is valuable to you.

I could probably build a combi boiler or a motor car out of scraps but (IMO) it’s a much better investment of my time to buy one and that’s also less likely to kill everyone in the house.