Posted by rrreese 3 days ago
Don't even know why people rely on these guis which can show their magic anytime
* If your value your privacy, you need to encrypt the files on the client before uploading.
* You need to keep multiple revisions of each file, and manage their lifecycle. Unless you're fine with losing any data that was overwritten at the time of the most recent backup.
* You need to de-duplicate files, unless you want bloat whenever you rename a file or folder.
* Plus you need to pay for Amazon's extortionate egress prices if you actually need to restore your data.
I certainly wouldn't want to handle all that on my own in a script. What can make sense is using open source backup software with S3/R2/B2 as backing storage.
In terms of cloud storage... well I was using backblaze's b2 but the issues here are definitely making me reconsidering doing business with the company even if my use of it is definitely not impacted by any of them.
Most people (my mom) don't know what s3 and r2 is or how to use it.
I like how you can set multiple keys (much like LUKS) so that the key used by scheduled backups can be changed without messing with the key that I have memorized to restore with when disaster strikes.
It also means you can have multiple computers backing up (sequentially, not simultaneously) to the same repository, each with their own key.
also, you pay per-GB. the author is on backblaze's unlimited plan.
It really shouldn't take up much more space or bandwidth.
Personally: I had to go in and edit the undisclosed exclusions file, and restart the backup process. I've got quite a few gigabytes of upload going now.
It's always been just janky. A bad app that constantly throws low disk warnings and opens a webpage if you click anywhere on it. Being told the password change dialogue in the app doesn't work and having to use the website etc etc.
Just all round not an experience that inspires confidence. In comparison, Crashplan just worked.
My experience using restic has been excellent so far, snapshots take 5 mins rather than 30 mins with backblaze's Mac client. I just hope I can trust it…
Doing it silently is disaster.
Making excludes doing it hidden from UI is outright malice, because it's far too easy to assume those would just be added as normal excludes and then go "huh, I probably just removed those from excludes when I set it up".
I never tried this particular Backblaze product because I don't trust a opaque blob touching my most valuable data nor do I trust unlimited plans that dont mention what the limits are, atleast in fine print.