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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

Time Capsule really should be next. Apple doesn't have any real comparative advantage in backup software. The Time Capsule interface is interesting, but it's not what most people need from a backup solution (what most people need is set-it-and-forget-it that works from arbitrary locations).

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I disagree with this. I think that Apple's time capsule is not well suited to an offsite backup solution, and it probably shouldn't even be the primary.

But if you're in the Apple ecosystem anyway, I think it's really convenient to take complete disk images for a full system restore. I think it's cool to use a 3-2-1 backup chain with a backup system image.

Granted, this is coming from someone who uses Tarsnap, Arq and Crashplan; but I've used Apple time capsules and I really admire their usability. In a restore scenario I don't have to choose particular files or folders, I just have to choose a date and the entire system is back. This is not without its downsides (no granularity in restore), but it's super convenient if it's what you need.

If I were in a decision making position, I'd get rid of the Apple routers like they are doing and double down on time capsules by providing an integrated offsite solution, perhaps marketed with end to end encryption as a nod to privacy advocates.

Huh? I've only ever used Time Machine to grab individual files from backup, which is dead easy. (Okay, I have grabbed all the most recent files when doing a full system restore.)

Completely wrong in my experience. Time Capsule was the only solution I could use with my less tech-savvy relatives to get them to actually back up their laptops. It is very much fire-and-forget.

The competitive advantage is that it already works and requires barely any setup or input from me. It's been chugging along backing up all the macs in my home for years without issue. I do not want to be bothered setting up a new solution.

I believe the Time Capsule is included in this decision. From the article "Apple currently sells three wireless routers, the AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, and AirPort Time capsule."

In my experience, it's always been easy to set up. Actually using the Time Capsule, I've had one Time Capsule die, and one instance where I used a backup over 8 years. Retrieving the data from the backup was easy, without requiring a reference to a manual, IIRC.

We will know for sure by WWDC 2017 as the next macOS will have a brand new file system, which necessitate major rewrite of Time Machine backup software. I think Apple wants to kill Time Capsule but Time Machine is one major selling point of macOS. So likely we'll get Time Machine for iCloud or Apple partners with NAS vendor Synology etc to support Mac backup.

On a related note, I've noticed that when running Zerotier (virtual LAN over the Internet, free and nifty) my MBP sees the two servers I'm using as Time Machine destinations whenever it's connected to the Internet and performs backups to them remotely.

Not necessarily a good thing when I'm tethering, but neat other times :P

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