Thank you for the suggestion.  However, I am NOT going to run the end 
user machine -- I have too many other things to do to be full time 
technical support (an IT technician, albeit one who uses Linux, not MS 
Windows or MacOS X, etc).  She wants an incremental backup without file 
duplication and with the ability to "read" files from the backup without 
actually restoring these to the machine storage unless she so chooses 
(eg, the ability to recover a file she deleted but now needs). 
Moreover, the backup unit (probably a 1 Tbyte external USB drive the 
size of a deck of playing cards or perhaps smaller) needs to be 
removable from the machine.  She plans to plug in the drive, Linux 
automounts it, and then she starts the incremental backup application of 
her (not the "system") files, typically her home directory and the tree 
from there, including links to her own files (not system files). When 
done, she safely removes the USB drive until the next backup.  Unless I 
were to write (or find) a tar script and produce a GUI front end (she 
does not like to use a terminal application but rather a GUI -- she uses 
a word processor, etc, but not vi, not even GUI gvim), tar would not be 
a useful solution.  (I did use tar to move her files from her "old" 
laptop to her "new" one, using an external USB drive, but she does not 
know nor is willing to understand how to do this.)

Timeshift does appear to be a system backup -- this is not what she wants.

Regards

Yasha

On 8/8/21 10:19 PM, Andrew Komornicki wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Have you considered just doing a tar on the /home directory on a
> periodic basis, and just copy the tar file to a backup drive. Simple and
> easy.
> 
> regards,
> Andrew
> 
> 
> 
> On 8/8/2021 7:38 PM, Yasha Karant wrote:
>> Apple products and the Apple OS (currently based upon BSD) are
>> proprietary.� If one needs service (hardware or software), one
>> effectively must use an Apple store (at least in the USA).� The
>> colleague is retired and has little money (this is the downward mobile
>> USA economy save for the neo-liberal profiteers).� She got a used/refurb
>> Lenovo Carbon X1 and I just installed a working Linux on it --
>> everything worked "out of the box".
>>
>> Reading more, Timeshift appears to be a systems, not end user files,
>> backup utility.� Any suggestions from anyone?
>>
>> Take care.� Stay safe.
>>
>> On 8/8/21 7:32 PM, Konstantin Olchanski wrote:
>>> On Sun, Aug 08, 2021 at 04:09:04PM -0700, Yasha Karant wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Assuming that she obtains a, say 1 Tbyte, external USB drive
>>>> (powered from the USB port and either mechanical or SSD), she plans
>>>> to do incremental backups to the backup drive.
>>>>
>>>> ... what ... would anyone recommend?
>>>> ... [need] tool [that] actually "works".
>>>>
>>>
>>> get a mac and use the built-in incremental backup tool called "time
>>> machine".
>>>
>>> spend more $$$, save on time, headache medicines and torn hair repair
>>> (assuming you still had any).
>>>