[…] just as convenient and beginner-friendly as what Apple provides?
There's a reason why Apple is able to charge so much money for that — and that reason is that the answer to your question is no.
this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2025
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iCloud shit is only 'convenient and beginner friendly' because you're paying someone else to do all the work and maintenance for you.
Nextcloud & Syncthing
+kde connect
Yeah, I use Syncthing to back up my PC's and devices, works like a charm.
Yeah I have a raspberry pi ‘syncthing hub’ that keeps all my devices uniform down to dot files and configs. It’s so essential. It’s so nice as well to be able to switch from my desktop to a laptop and continue coding seamlessly. Everything is ready as soon as I log to my computer. Don’t have to use any kind of service like google cloud, etc.
I feel like this, combined with an immutable distro and copy-on-write fs like zfs could make a really robust setup.
Maybe not beginner friendly yet but all the pieces are there.
Oh, and there is also bup, which might be what you are looking for:
- it stores files in version-controlled copies which can be synced. Perhaps good for backing up photos and such, up to a few GB.
Two more interesting solutions:
- Nix OS and Guix SD let you define a system entirely from single configuration file, so it is easy to re-create when needed.
- The Btrfs and ZFS file systems allow to take snapshots in an instant which can very efficiently store earlier versions of files. I used that when working with yocto/bitbake, which compiles an entire embedded system from source - it can handle much larger data volumes than git or bup, and is the right thing when handling versions of binary data.
And one more, the rsync tool allows to store hard-linked copies of directory trees.
The key question is however - what do you want?
- being able to recover earlier versions is essential when working with source code
- being able to merge such versions in text files is necessary when working on code cooperatively with others - and only source control systems can do this well
- In 99.9% of the other cases, you just want to be able to re-create a single ground-truth version of all your data after a disaster, and keep that backup copy as current as possible.
These are not the same requirements, especially the volume of data will differ.
And also, while you might to want or need to go patch by patch through conflicting source code tree with 10,000 different lines, I guess that absolutely nobody is willing or has time to go through a tree with 10,000 conflicting photographs and match them.
So the question back is: What is your specific use case and what exactly do you want to achieve?
Every system has its own processes. If you want Apple software and services use Apple. If you want Linux use Linux. Do not expect either to be like the other especilly at such a micro level.
As far as Linux and beginner friendly, buy a device with Linux preinstalled just like you do with Apple. As far as user setting and apps. Get a notebook and write them down, and avoid deep customizations. As far as backup get 3 USB drives and backup your home directory with rsync or one of the other solutions. As far as restore, have install media and just reinstall from scratch then layer in your configs and apps and then restore your home directory files. For file sync and app sync functions, Nextcloud is helpful and you can pay for a commercial host, set it up yourself, or use a product like Synology. You frankly could use Dropbox, Proton Drive, or one of the others also. But think carefully what is actually needed. Cloud stuff is heavily promoted by the big providers presumably for lockin reasons and to mine your data but it is not really needed for most things. Get to know your distros builtin emergency startup tools and have a live distro like the live install media available and know how to use them.
Linux is about options but for simple beginner like processes it is best to stick to the basics.
For backup, one can simply rsync their entire home directory.
NFS for shared directory, maybe syncthing to have locally synced stuff, scp for sharing files?
I've had this idea a few times over the years, but I always get stuck at figuring out: what is it actually I want to happen? If I remove a local file, should it be removed from the backup too? If I edit a file, should the newer version replace the old in the backup, or be saved separately, or just the delta between the files? I could never decide what I wanted.
Not that I have it all figured out, but it sounds like it would help to decouple backup from sync. I have syncthing keep a two-way sync, including deletes, but have syncthing's trash as a "backup" (items deleted after n-days) on each device in case I accidentally delete something. Then I have a nightly, encrypted backups with versions stored offsite (eg borg) which is only meant to be used if there's major failure like a flood or fire. HDD failure is covered by RAID10 NAS. Somewhere in there I have or need a data integrity/hash check, but at least it's a start.
Same. I still haven't figured out so my setup is a horrible mess with nfs, rsync and a bunch of symlinks.. and no structured backup
Maybe nextcloud? IDK I just use Borg. But Nextcloud allows that type of syncing that you describe, I think. I run a small nextcloud server for other purposes and don't use that feature.
Essentially, I use tar for backup, NFS / Samba for local file sharing, and git for syncing. (For specific cases, software like Zim wiki that stores to a git backend).
And it is not that I have not tried alternative solutions - for example, I tried the Coda file system. But blending version-controlled syncing and file distribution leads to devilishly complex corner cases and failure modes.
you want a solution for your computer? or for your phone?
if it's for your phone and it is still iOS then no, the Apple Ecosystem is closed, there are some reverse engineered offers but they tend to be patched out or not be reliable.
Support for both iOS and GNU + Linux is a noteworthy convenient feature of a syncing system, but I'm more focused on what's currently available on GNU + Linux, which probably needs to be built upon to replicate Apple's level of quality.
Linux Mint + Filen