Mac OS X Leopard Time Machine is not over hyped

Mentioning no names, one of the backup programs I used, not too long ago, came with a PDF manual, that, if printed, took up more than half an inch / 2cm+ of printed of paper. And it was complicated to use. And it was one of the better programs out there (this was a Windows app’).

Time Machine? Clever name. Even clever-er interface — “Oo! It looks so pretty”. But this, for me at least, was a case of poor judgment. I expected Time Machine to be just‒another‒backup. Having now used it, admittedly in a small way, having looked at what it does and how it does it; I am amazed.

Amazed

Backup is, has been, one of those not so easy things to use or have explained by documentation. In the strong and clear metaphor of moving through time, underscored beautifully and constantly by the interface, Apple have removed the need for all the books, all but. The program has next to no buttons. So you can’t set it up wrong because you can’t set it up, it’s pretty much use it or don’t.

In a way that reminds me of what Google did to email, when they designed Gmail, Apple seemed to have looked at backup and tried to solve it rather than making an evolutionary solution. Their revolutionary solution is possible because of their strength in design and execution. This program also reminds me of a 37signals application in its pared down nature.

Tiger was so good, I found it hard to not be ever so slightly disappointed with Leopard — disappointed is the wrong word, because I am already not wanting to do without Spaces, Time Machine, the lovely new sheen to all parts of the UI and no doubt more I will get into soon. But on reflection, the upgrade was worthwhile for Time Machine alone.

Inevitably an area as massively complex as backup, the underside of backup that is, file locking, database backup and much more is going to run into a hiccup or two when first released into the field, testing aside. So I was not too surprised to read that, apparently, Aperture does not play well with Time Machine, “unforgivable” I am sure some will say - all should have been perfection of Day1. But this may have been wrongly reported and if it has not, will no doubt be fixed quickly. [Has been – see Comments…]

In summary, Time Machine brings reliable, easy backup and restore, to the vast majority, easily. A feat not to be underestimated.