My test drive of Mint 19

[gm10]

Now to Timeshift.
That should have been an option to enable or disable by the individual user. Currently its nags and intrusive integration into the Update Manager make it unpalatable.

Considering it's meant to take snapshots of the root partition I don't see a value to enable/disable this on a per-user basis, that kinda defeats the point. I assume with nags you mean the warning in update manager if you don't set it up, but that can indeed be removed by the user with a simple checkbox in update manager settings, so no big deal.

My backup directory has a permanent mount point and is therefore targeted by Timeshift in its backup snapshot - hence the excessively large snapshots.

There is no manual entry for Timeshift.

I'm not sure what you mean by no manual entry but you can set up filters to exclude certain files and folders from the backups so you can avoid such circular backup situations as in your case that multiply your snapshot sizes. In my case the timeshift folder (rsync) only exceeds the size of the system partition by little (only the size of the received updates basically, I'm also filtering log files and such - if you install and remove a lot of software that would increase it as well, of course). I'm running weekly snapshots.

[Pjotr]

Timeshift is a nice tool, but I don't see the benefit of running it on a frequent scheduled basis. One or two snapshots, performed by hand, should be quite enough to have in reserve.

After all, its target is only to get your system up and running again after a "bad apple" in the updates. That target can just as well be achieved with a single snapshot that you've made, say, six months ago.

Note that your home folder, with its documents and other personal files, is another cup of tea. But by default, your home folder isn't included in the Timeshift snapshots anyway. You're supposed to use mintbackup for that.

[MintBean]

Timeshift is a nice tool, but I don't see the benefit of running it on a frequent scheduled basis.

I agree with you, however I have a slightly different preference - I usually run it manually prior to every system update. I would love it if there was an option in the update manager for the snapshot to be triggered automatically prior to system update.

[gm10]

Timeshift is a nice tool, but I don't see the benefit of running it on a frequent scheduled basis.

I agree with you, however I have a slightly different preference - I usually run it manually prior to every system update. I would love it if there was an option in the update manager for the snapshot to be triggered automatically prior to system update.

That's on the roadmap for Mint 19.1

[Sir Charles]

My backup directory has a permanent mount point and is therefore targeted by Timeshift in its backup snapshot - hence the excessively large snapshots.

By default /media/* and /mnt/* are excluded from the snapshots (see Settings:Filters:Summary). If you have defined another mount point for your backup, make sure that you filter it out, as mentioned above by gm10.

[AZgl1800]

Timeshift is a nice tool, but I don't see the benefit of running it on a frequent scheduled basis.

I agree with you, however I have a slightly different preference - I usually run it manually prior to every system update. I would love it if there was an option in the update manager for the snapshot to be triggered automatically prior to system update.

I have always felt that System Updates must by force, create a System Backup before any changes are allowed to happen.

I rigorously enforce that rule manually.... I don't do "Scheduled Updates", I only do Manual Updates of the System.

the /home folders get backup via a plug in USB drive when I think it is needed.

With my new learned knowledge of Linux, my PCs all now have a dedicated partition for /backup and /home

[gm10]

Frankly, while I did set up timeshift, I'm not terribly bothered about linux system backups. I have a script to apply the few universal changes to system configuration that I always make, plus some distribution-specific changes, and the rest is a backup of user settings and a list of installed packages. That's enough to quickly rebuild a system from a fresh ISO install whenever needed. That's one of the great things about Linux.

Still, Timeshift is a good thing, and I also support the decision to get users to install all updates by default. The "power user" can still do whatever they want, but these automated tools make the distro more accessible for those who have no reason to want to look under the hood.

[AZgl1800]

sounds like you have it under control,

it just irks me when something destroys my current setup and I have forgotten to document some minor changes.

e.g., tweeks that make life easy, like typing 'date' in upper case and it turns into: Tue Jun 26 09:52:11 CDT 2018
little shortcuts etc,

I just enjoy being able to do a turnkey replication of exactly what I have going "right now" and not have to do an install and rebuild....

Aptik is great for that, lets me duplicate the same setup on a different brand PC with the same OS.

[MintBean]

That's on the roadmap for Mint 19.1

Good to know, and thanks for the heads up!

[lmuserx4849]

Been running 19 (all flavours) on several machines, ever since the release of the bèta.... No serious gripes. MATE was at first somewhat rough on the edges, but the updates fixed that. Cinnamon and Xfce just keep humming along nicely, right from the start up to now.

The demise of gksu / gksudo took a bit of getting used to (its successors are of course pkexec and admin:// ). Backward compatibility with some traditional config tweaks is mostly preserved.

The biggest change for me, was the new Update Manager. By default it relies a bit too heavily on Timeshift, if you ask me. The level system, although still available, is too much hidden.

All in all: a nice release, with an excellent codebase (Ubuntu 18.04 LTS), and with -thank God- no major disruptions of the established user interfaces. Good job!

LM 19/Mate

Agree on Timeshift. It prompted a couple of times. It is certainly a nice feature for users who don't already have a backup/restore mechanism. As long as it is optional....

The other thing I noticed are apps that use pkexec don't obey/pass themes/variables. One example is synaptic manager. If you invoke /usr/sbin/synaptic from the command line the gui is okay. But if you invoke it from the menu, it is not --- in this case, assuming you like traditional scrollbars that are always visible.

Most of my weirdness came from kde apps.

I installed konsole (78 additional packages). I right-clicked konsole on the panel and selected Properties. I added an option to the command and
clicked close. The icon changed form the correct icon, konsole.svg, to 2 shirts, style.svg. I went back into properties, clicked the image to change the icon, clicked close, and all is okay. kate installed 53 packages, okular 17.

In kate, the open file dialog shows hidden files, one or two directories, even though the option "show hidden files is off". If I'm in a directory and toggle the option, on/off, a hidden directory will still be in the list. This does not happen with xed or lbreoffice File Open Dialog.

[kyphi]

Agree on Timeshift. It prompted a couple of times. It is certainly a nice feature for users who don't already have a backup/restore mechanism. As long as it is optional....

Exactly.
Timeshift uses rsync which I have used to do backups for the last 13 years.
+1 for "optional".

I'm not sure what you mean by no manual entry

Type man timeshift into a terminal window and the result will be No manual entry for timeshift

[AZgl1800]

Type man timeshift into a terminal window and the result will be No manual entry for timeshift

Never has been a manual in Terminal for Timeshift, it only exists at http://www.teejeetech.in/2016/12/timesh ... anual.html

[gm10]

I'm not sure what you mean by no manual entry

Type man timeshift into a terminal window and the result will be No manual entry for timeshift

Obviously that's what you meant. That actually made me laugh (at myself) for having had misread that. I guess other than the contributor's manual the github readme is relevant: https://github.com/teejee2008/timeshift