Windows uses a process called “System Restore” in the event that a system modification (such as adding a new application or a software update) leaves your system in an unstable state. Way back when WinXP was my 50% usage platform, I would set my system to automatically – and at least daily and before major changes – to create “Restore Points.” While Restore points are helpful, they’re no guarantee that you can return your state to its formally “reliable” state, since, under Windows, system reliability is always a slowly deteriorating metric as one moves forward in time from the initial complete system installation.
Since I’m now 40% Mac, 40% ubuntu and 10% WinXP, that mess is long gone and forgotten and not by design – in the same way I’ve forgotten about the care of phonographic albums. The question recently came up among a group of “Fresh Ubuntu” fans over at Twitter when someone asked about the equivalent in ubuntu. It is a fascinating question. My response sounded like a non sequitur: look into disk partitioning. Yes, I know what disk partitioning is. Yet, I believe this is superior to system restore as a means of maintaining a reliable state, even if this is not semantically analogous.
The skinny: when setting up, be sure to set up a /home partition.
Over at “Linux Reality” Chess Griffin’s freshly defunct podcast had an episode (#76) dedicate to disk partitioning schemes. I followed his advice after a recent partitioning and I was pleasantly surprised when after I reinstalled the OS (I moved from 32-bit to 64-bit ubuntu) and I only overwrote the system partition – my settings and files were intact. I saved myself hours of reconfiguring to my liking. I’ve spent more time fiddling with restore points than I did with this OS overhaul. I had unwittingly come across a superset of the “System Restore” domain and was tickled.
Now, my /home partition IS my “system restore.” This way, if I decide to “blow out and reinstall” my OS – its not the big time-consuming deal it is under Windows. The good news, too, is that with Mac or ubuntu, I don’t see the deteriorating performance issues I have with Windows. Chess adds other goodies that this brings, such as allowing for multiple linux distros using the same home partition – but that’s way past my needs.
“System Restore;” it’s an old OS problem that I’ve filed under “antiquity.”
