Re: [PLUG] non-nerdy ... a non-rant

On 10/26/07, jeff <jeffv@op.net> wrote:

a fellow traveler just mentioned a backup program being for non-nerds.

I recently went on a quest for backup programs.  Naturally there was a
twist or three: lin/win would be nice, but mainly I wanted to FTP the
result offsite automatically.  Believe it or not, that did not knock
*every* backup program out of contention... just most of them.

I quickly gave up on dual-platform and went for best feel (whatever that
is).  I think I went right up against certain definitions of FOSS, not
to mention the difference between Win and lin.

Starting with Win, I found no shortage of programs, but only a few that
would ftp.  I picked the two that looked best and installed them.  They
both installed and worked flawlessly (after my stupid mistakes were
removed from the equation).  Sometimes I forget which OS I'm working on
and reverse the slashes.  They worked(!)

Nothing was out of the ordinary here.

Then I turned my attention to linux.  Synaptic is cool for many reasons,
even though I prefer apt.  I searched for the right program and pretty
much failed, mostly due to lack of full description.  I also searched
online.  I dl'd a few.  Most failed to even come up, for one reason or
another.  I settled on two to test, only one of which ftp'd.  I tried to
make it run the manly way (without reading) but of course failed.  Since
it was CLI, I had no choice.  It worked.

Life interfered, as it tends to do, and it was a week before I got back
to the project.  Since the backups were automated, they were effectively
invisible and I forgot about the lin backup.  The Win backup, although
automated, came complete with blinky reminders that it was waiting or
working.

And that was it.  I just defined several arguments, features, genres,
feels, and OSes.

You're not going to get a Win CLI backup.  They're gui by default.
They're NON-NERDY by default (although most people who own a Win
computer no doubt have difficulty with it, if they even bother).  You
graphically select dirs or files, tell it where and when to go, and
you're off.

With my chosen OS, the experience was different.  There was no easy
selection in *any* of the programs, regardless of gui/cli.  Some require
you to specify dirs on the cli or put together a text file of dirs/files
to back up.  I had to figure out the entire paradigm of lin backing up
and figure out what might work best for me.  I gave up on feel early and
kinda got frustrated, settling on something that might work and spending
what I consider too much time making it work.

I chose lin because I had done my last Win reboot.  I really like it.  I
generally don't mind spending the time to learn and using bizarre
commands that wrap lines... I'm a General Geek, but not an expert one.
But sometimes I just want it to WORK and work easily.  I might not have
the time to acclimate myself to the Lin Way.

A prime example is anything with burner in the title.  In spite of being
ok with the cli, that one is just plain over the line.  If I have to use
more than two switches, forget it.  And it's not like they're intuitive,
where p=port and the longest thing you have to type is an IP address.
I'm perfectly fine playing a developmentally delayed individual who
insists on having a GUI as a metaphoric set of training wheels.

Moving from the metaphoric to the rhetorical, I am left wondering where
lin is going (IF it's going anywhere).  Speaking as someone with a foot
in two OS worlds, a lot of this is just plain user-hostile.  Not that it
hasn't gotten tons better (Kubuntu and PClinuxOS are perfectly usable,
even by Win people)... but my experience here is illustrative of the
differences.

For the geeks, I know there are perfectly good ways to do this, some
involving cron, some involving multiple programs, and some involving
repetitive stress injuries from just typing the commands to start it.  I
just wanted to see if I could do it the `easy' way.

Now all I have to do is remember which app I installed and put it on the
other boxes :)

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