Déjà Dup is a good choice for that.

However, attitude changes may also be required. Assuming that some of 
the information is confidential time investment on the part of the user 
in understanding and being able to configure the system may be useful in 
the long run. If you manage to create an attitude change, please let us 
know how so we can replicate the process:)

On 8/9/21 9:49 AM, Yasha Karant wrote:
> 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).
>>>>