Software - Thoughts on What's Needed?

[OilKiller]

Hey guys,

I've have run my own software company for quite some time and now have decided to do a little programming on my own, on the side just for fun.

My company has been basically a general utility type company (ZIP, CD creation, backup, etc.). I would like to stick with a smaller system type utility or some type of utility but I'm out of ideas.

Anyone with any real need to any type of general or system utility that you think is missing out there right now or good be done a whole lot better or simpler?

I find many companies tend to make utilities as hard as they can to use and stick feature after feature in the software, when it really isn't needed or just confuses the heck out of the end user, so I like to make my apps simpler to use for the common if not, novice type users.

This app I create on my own will be free (donations of course will be accepted if someone wants to send one my way once it's up and available).

Ideas? Thoughts? Any help or ideas (however crazy) would be appreciated.

[Buff]

A really really easy to configure and run backup program.

[OilKiller]

Thanks Buff...Details as to what you mean by easy? Certain features you feel are required?

Anyone else have any ideas as to software needed?

[photon]

Actually I second what Buff says. And for the Mac too, for those that don't want to backup to a connected disk and want to do it on the network.. I've tried a few and none seem to work properly.

Cobian Backup and Backup4All are pretty decent examples of something that is really good backup software, but assumes too much of the user.

Here's a simple example.

I have two computers in the house at the moment, and a small NAS with mirrored drives which store all my critical and shared data.

What I want is something that keeps both my computers backed up to the NAS. Something that does incremental and full backups and presents that to the user in such a way that it's dead simple to understand what's going on. Something like time machine that does constant backups and allows me to backwards over previous versions of files.

Another good feature would be to facilitate offsite backups, a reverse backup from the network share to an attached external HDD maybe, though that I guess is really just a copy feature.

[OilKiller]

photon,

I will check out those two you mentioned and see what they look like.

I'm surprised by two folks asking about backup. There are a LOT of backup solutions out there. I wouldn't think there would be a need for more.

As for Mac, sorry, I can only design for Windows.

If I do end up doing a backup application, the one thing it would not do is disaster recovery (it's not easy to do a complete system image - if it was there would be more apps out there that did it). I could however do an app that would backup, store the backup in ZIP compatible archives with strong AES encryption if folks wanted it, backup to numerous devices (network drives, removable drives, etc. - although CD/DVD writing is something I may or may not be able to do - not quite sure it's needed these days with the price of external/removable drives), allow for timed/scheduled backups and could allow for keeping of numerous copies of files for archiving/retrieval purposes. One thing that I might be able to add is a "watched" folder that allows backup of the files within that folder (and subfolders if wanted) anytime a file is changed, added, moved, deleted, etc.

Any other thoughts/needs?

Any other application ideas guys?

[Bobblehead]

Some sort of document collaboration software.

There are things out there, but they seem to be pretty complex and force workers to adapt to them.


Specifically, what I was looking for was to fulfill this business issue. We have branch offices, but one main office where much of the processing of accounts is done. Often the documents need to be sent back to the branch offices to get/update information. The issue is the documents can be either electronic (.xls primarily) or physical (the paper file). There needs to be some sort of librarian type of program to handle these, without getting into a full blown CRM or Share point solution.

[Buff]

Well, Killer... being an IT guy, I've seen backup solutions that just aren't user-friendly for the common person. At a place where I used to work we came up with a batch file that copied files to a USB key, or an external hard drive. All the user had to do was double click on the shortcut we put on their desktop. That was simple. However they don't get to configure the backups themselves.

Where I work now we used to use arcserve (or something like that). It wasn't too intuitive for even an IT person, and it didn't play well with the servers that we were backing up anyway. We actually just copy files to an external hdd for some stuff, and we have a couple of servers that we use tape backups as they were part of a solution we bought from a vendor.

Howerver, there are many many businesses out there who can't afford much in the way of an IT guy or IT consulting. They would be the be main beneficiary of such a program. They need something that speaks to them on their level when trying to configure and run their backups. How to make the program simple for them? Hard ofr me to say, otherwise I may have already come up with it.

[OilKiller]

Thanks for all the info and input guys! Keep 'em coming.

Any ideas on the software already mentioned or any new type of software.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by photon

Actually I second what Buff says. And for the Mac too, for those that don't want to backup to a connected disk and want to do it on the network.. I've tried a few and none seem to work properly.

You can use Time Machine to do that, (even though they try make it so you can't) and really, I find that to be the biggest selling feature of using a Mac.

To the OP, take a look at Time Machine for Mac, try create something similar for Windows, and I think you will have something that many many people will want to use.

[llama64]

Time Machine would be awesome... if only it wasn't so damn fragile.

A Windows/Mac/Other based backup system that my Mother can use without me guiding her through everything would be at the top of my list too.

If it was rock solid, easy has heck to automate and designed for home users rather then server admins, I'd be all over it. Make both Windows and Mac versions for extra fun. I have yet to see a decent program accomplish what should be a rather simple task.

[OilKiller]

As stated, sorry, I can't design for Mac guys. As for Time Machine, Windows Vista includes something like this in the Backup & Restore Center. Seems pretty much like what you are taking about with Time Machine.

Photon,

What do you mean specifically when you said:

Cobian Backup and Backup4All are pretty decent examples of something that is really good backup software, but assumes too much of the user.

Can you give me some examples?

I've done some hunting for free backup applications and there are a lot out there. Obviously some are better than others, but I'm not sure there is a market here and if there is, well, then I need to find that need that has not been met yet.

Oh and Bobblehead, I am not ignoring your idea by any means. I'm interested in anything that there is a need for out there. I may have some more questions for you soon.

[photon]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

You can use Time Machine to do that, (even though they try make it so you can't) and really, I find that to be the biggest selling feature of using a Mac.

Yeah I know you can change a parameter to make it work but that wouldn't work for me, it still didn't work. Plus I've read a few people that had problems recovering data on a network based Time Machine, I don't want my backups to be an iffy thing.

And it's pure stupidity because you can do it to Apple's NAS.

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

To the OP, take a look at Time Machine for Mac, try create something similar for Windows, and I think you will have something that many many people will want to use.

Agreed.

Originally Posted by OilKiller

Photon,

What do you mean specifically when you said:

Can you give me some examples?

Basically when you have to setup your backups, you have to know ahead of time what the difference between a complete, incremental, etc are. And you have to setup your own of each to try and do a good coverage over time within whatever space you have, scheduling seems to be flaky with no good feedback if things worked or not (great, thanks for showing me a bigass log file). I just try to think of if my parents or sister could setup Backup4all or Cobian and shudder.

[OilKiller]

Originally Posted by photon

Basically when you have to setup your backups, you have to know ahead of time what the difference between a complete, incremental, etc are. And you have to setup your own of each to try and do a good coverage over time within whatever space you have, scheduling seems to be flaky with no good feedback if things worked or not (great, thanks for showing me a bigass log file). I just try to think of if my parents or sister could setup Backup4all or Cobian and shudder.

OK...I will look into things. If I do a backup app, I am strongly considering something VERY easy to use, which would most likely exclude many of the folks on this site. I'm talking VERY novice users. I think you have a point about much of it being too difficult. Though, with a very easy to use program, there wouldn't be that many features and it would most likely be pretty basic, but would allow users who don't know what they are doing to backup what's important to them. In most cases, we're talking pics, docs, etc.

[photon]

Yup that's pretty much it; simple usually means either reduced functionality, or at the very least making a bunch of choices for you up front but allowing changes down the road.

Most people don't think about or do backups.

I think some of the external HDDs come with a one-touch backup type system, so you might check those out to see if they're any good and use those for ideas for yours.

Even reminders to backup could be done differently. "You have 4,233 photos which are currently not backed up, start backup process now?"

[Ronald Pagan]

This may be moot considering the dominance of iTunes. But I would like a media program that could respond to multiple network nodes using a centralized database.

For example, I have a NAS with a large music collection. When I update the library or make new playlists from one computer I would like those changes to show up for all computers on the network. Instead I have to manually refresh the library on each computer and find and load the saved playlists. A synchronized media centre accessible across a home network would be really cool.

[Bill Bumface]

^ A few NAS's have built in iTunes servers which take care of this for you.

[OilKiller]

Originally Posted by photon

I think some of the external HDDs come with a one-touch backup type system, so you might check those out to see if they're any good and use those for ideas for yours.

Yeah, I've got one. Don't use that functionality though. It OK but not great.

Originally Posted by photon

Even reminders to backup could be done differently. "You have 4,233 photos which are currently not backed up, start backup process now?"

Yeah, reminders are a good idea and easy, easy backup system too. I'm going to see what I can come up with.

Thanks for the input guys. Anything else, please post.

[OilKiller]

Not sure if it's allowed or not, so Mods, you can edit this out if you like, but I released a very easy to use backup app based on some of the comments in this thread.

http://www.cinchsoft.com

[Rathji]

Downloaded to check it out and give you feedback.

Why no direct backup to optical drive?

Other than that, it seems very easy to use.

[OilKiller]

Originally Posted by Rathji

Why no direct backup to optical drive?

As in CD/DVD?

Requires a lot more work actually and some code I simply don't have.

USB drives are so cheap these days, I'm not sure why anyone would wait to write to a CDR or DVDR disc these days.