this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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They are often incremental but they're still not a backup.
They are local restore points. That's better than nothing at all as a local copy can protect against a very limited kind of data hazard and quite handy indeed but not a backup. A backup is always an independent copy.
If your entire machine was to blow up, a backup must be able to retain your data. A copy on the same disks will not.
Now I get your point, sorry. You can use both Timeshift and BackInTime as snapshot tools, but also configure them to create snapshots on a different drive, making it an actual backup.
I for example use Timeshift in Rsync mode for that reason even though I'm also using Btrfs, which Timeshift supports, but only for non-backup snapshots.
Sorry for the confusion, I guess when suggesting both those tools one always has to specify that you need to save snapshots on a secondary drive for it to be a backup.