Linux Mint 18.3 will feature window level progress info and redesigned backup tool

In monthly news letter for August 2017, Linux Mint team has unveiled some planned highlights of upcoming Linux Mint 18.3 stable release. It includes a completely rewritten system backup tool and window level progress to show progress on task bar.

The backup tool has been completely rewritten to provide a better experience. The code has been minimized and modernized to ensure better performance and stability. Now, it has better multi-threading support, and compression mechanism. It does not require users to enter password as backup is no more performed as root user. The backup tool is revamped in such was that, it will backup your home directory into archives. Optionally, you may configure it to ignore some of the file types. It also provide option to remembers apps present in your current installation.

A preview of backup tool in upcoming Linux Mint 18.3

Linux Mint 18.3 will also show progress of current transaction on task bar. For example, if you are copying some file, it's progress will be shown on task bar also, so that you can keep an eye on it while running other applications. This idea is adopted from Windows 7 and is implemented using LibXApp, a C library available in most distributions.

We decided to limit its scope. We wanted this tool to do less and to do it better. You won’t need to enter your password to run the Backup Tool, because it no longer runs as root. When backing up data you no longer need to go through options or to select a source and a type of backup. This tool is now dedicated to making a backup of your home directory, nothing less and nothing more. It saves all your files into a tar archive. When restoring a backup, files are restored in the exact same place they were before, with their original permissions and timestamps.

Of course when performing a backup you have the option to exclude files and directories and the items you exclude are remembered for future backups (the idea is to make it easy for you to perform new backups regularly).
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When an application is busy doing something it usually shows you a progress bar. Instead of mindlessly looking at the bar and waiting for it to reach 100% people usually seize the opportunity to do something else or distract themselves on the Web while waiting. The problem is.. how do you know when the application is ready if you can’t see its progress bar? How can you keep an eye on the progress of the operation after you minimize the window or focus other windows on top of it?

To know more about Linux Mint project activities, see project's monthly news letter for August 2017.