I have been using a dual boot machine for a couple of years. I've got to the point where I spend 95% of my time logged into Linux rather than the proprietary OS (W10) and so I need to choose a Linux-based workhorse app for my backup and synching arrangements.
I've been using Timeshift for months, and have had to use it "in anger" 3 or 4 times, usually as a result of some silly action by me. I am a great fan of its programmed "snapshotting": potentially you could look back several months and find a file which had been deleted long ago, and recover it. And yet because it does these snapshots incrementally they don't take up enormous amounts of space.
I don't understand why Timeshift is designed (as I understand it) to sync only "my system" or "my system and my home directory" ... and that's it. In an ideal world I'd like to use Timeshift to do all my backup/sync tasks ... including different filtering for different jobs, for example.
I haven't found any sign that anyone is able (or wishing) to tweak Timeshift for more general-purpose use. That being so, which FOSS Linux backup app is most like Timeshift, in terms of doing snapshotting, etc., but is also more freely configurable?
PS I have today been examining rsnapshot, an app which basically sits atop rsync and implements a snapshotting arrangement. Having done a first sync-backup using it I think it may be a little too complicated for me, and not sufficiently documented for my needs. There are some interesting technical criticisms here which may be (still be?) valid. Apparently it's written in PERL(!) of all things. I'm half inclined to rustle up a Python script which organises things using calls to rsync: at least I'd know what it was doing. I use such Python scripts for a lot of my sys admin tasks.
O for the simplicity of Timeshift.
