Linux users extol the stability of their systems -- of all the things that seem to compel people to switch from Windows to Linux, it's either stability or cost. Linux systems run and stay running, and aren't taken out of action by something as simple as visiting the wrong Web page and getting infected with something. (Admittedly, these problems are being addressed in Windows, but once people get fed up enough to leave because of such things it's really hard to win them back again.)

(click image for larger view) Linux Linux backup tools may not be as user-friendly as Norton Ghost, but there are a fair number of them to choose from. view the image gallery

Windows XP had the Ntbackup tool, and Vista has a backup utility that does some things well (there's full-system backup in Vista Ultimate), some things badly (what do you mean, I can't exclude a directory?), and other things not at all. With backup and restore in Linux, though, there's no one specific thing to use out of the box -- there's a plethora of projects and solutions you can pick from. The process of winnowing these down to the applications that fit your needs -- and then making them work for you -- can be a little intimidating if you have never done it before, so you will again need to do some legwork to get the most out of it all.

For example: If you want to back up to CD or DVD, for instance, there's multicd. For backing up specific files and directories on a schedule to a local archive, there's SBackup. For whole-system backup and restore, or if you want to perform bare-metal recoveries, there are whole standalone distributions you can use to accomplish that -- 4BAK comes to mind, as does Clonezilla.

Macs really aren't prone to the kinds of system software problems that you see in Windows. You're extremely unlikely to find that your data files, applications, or system files have become corrupted. But you still need backups. Macs are susceptible to human error, hard disk crashes, theft, and Wile E. Coyote dropping an anvil on your computer. Mac users have several options.

	(click image for larger view) Mac Amazon's S3 service and JungleDisk software together provide remote backup, storage, and file-sharing. view the image gallery

The Apple .Mac online service includes backup -- but unfortunately, storage space available in .Mac is laughably small for backup purposes -- 1GB for $99.95 per year, upgradeable to 4GB.

My main backup is Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) from from Amazon.com, an inexpensive, format agnostic online storage service -- it costs $0.15 per gigabyte per month of storage, plus modest bandwidth fees. To make things even easier, I use Jungle Disk, an application which runs on the Mac, Windows, and Linux, and which makes S3 appear to your computer to be a local disk drive. Jungle Disk includes a backup utility that lets you copy local files and folders to S3.

Another option for online backup, Mozy, offers free online backup of up to 2GB of data, and unlimited backup for $4.95 per month. Previously a strictly Windows app, it's now available in beta for the Mac. I know a few people who've tried it -- some have reported flawless experiences, others were unable to get it to work.

For backup to another disk on your local network, Synk synchronizes the contents of any two folders. It's priced at $20 for personal use and non-profits, and $40 for use by for-profit organizations.

The Lifehacker Web site has a good overview of Mac backup options, and instructions for using the Unix utility rsync (which is included in the Mac because Mac OS is a Unix-based OS) for backup. Apple plans to include a backup utility called Time Machine in the next version of OS X, code-named Leopard. It's not just a backup utility -- it remembers all the data and settings on your Mac for any particular day, and lets you roll back your machine to a past configuration.