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backups on real linux

One of the reasons I wanted to use Linux is my increasing unease with using the products of US-based tech giants. It must be ten years since I last used Facebook, and I've taken steps to reduce my dependence on Google (for instance, moving away from Gmail for hosting email, using a burner account on my Pixel), and now it's Microsoft's time. I still use Amazon regularly, not sure how I'll break that completely.

So far, so good. I went with easy-peasy Linux Mint this time and have to say I recall less than fondly my early experiences with beta releases of Slackware in the early nineties -- when your Linux desktop can find and configure your network printer, you know you're getting somewhere.

Another reason was that I wanted to improve the automated backups I do. This includes backing up the servers I run at home, such as the one for this website. Needless to say, running Linux instead of Windows Subsystem for Linux has meant my backups run in 1/10th the time and I have far more confidence in the process. I think the culprit is WSL's insanely slow access to data volumes. I don't know what's going on but fairly small-scale backups were taking 90 minutes.

Linux 1, Windows Subsystem for Linux 0.