SpiderOak - Online, Automatic File Backup for Everyone

A few days ago, I wrote a review of an automated backup service available for Mac and Windows called Mozy. Mozy operates on a tiered pricing plan, with a free 2 Gigabyte storage option for individuals and larger plans for those with higher needs. On OS X, the platform I used to try out Mozy, backing up all my important documents, photos, configuration files and other "stuff" was simple, fast and pretty much flawless.

Mozy, however, has one fatal flaw, at least for someone in my position.

Mozy doesn't support Linux.

I happen to use both OS X and Linux, and while I suppose (if I really wanted to), I could make sure to transfer all my important Linux stuff to a hard drive that OS X can access, and then back it up (via Mozy), the next time I log into OS X... I'd rather not. Too much room for error, too many opportunities for me to forget something important. Not that I expect my Linux installation to unexpectedly go belly-up, but if it does happen, it will be unexpected, and I don't want to take the risk of losing something I can't afford to lose.

So I started looking into other backup options. What I wanted was simple, at least in the abstract. I want a backup program that I can teach. I want to be able to tell it, "see the stuff in this folder? This is important stuff," and have the backup program keep track of everything that goes in or out of that folder, as well as when items inside it change. I want to be able to do that teaching and then pretty much ignore everything else. I don't want to have to remember to back up my hard drive, because I'm not doing that now. Simply installing a new program on my computer isn't likely to make me remember.

After a bit of looking around, I found that very few backup services really support Linux. One supports Linux, but not with a Desktop client. If you use a standard FTP program, you can log into your account and manually upload what you want backed-up, but I could do that anyway in other places. I wanted someone who really supports Linux.

And I found SpiderOak, and with a couple exceptions, couldn't be happier.