I was in the process of typing up an email to a friend who is willing to give Ubuntu a try because he hates Norton AV that much. As I was typing I was explaining that I'd need to help him backup his data first before we could install Ubuntu. And then I thought about the Mozy backup service my sister uses and realized how much easier the process of switching from * to Ubuntu could be!
Idea #13671: Online data storage to migrate from Windows
I would love to see a little Windows application (like the Mozy.com service) added to the Live CD that would help people migrate their data from Windows to Ubuntu. The application would connect to a Web-based service and would upload all data from the current machine to a secure offsite backup. The machine could then have Ubuntu installed and the data would be migrated back down from the secure site to the (now) Ubuntu machine.
This service would make it a lot easier for me to get people moved over if I could show them their data was "safe" before doing the OS switch.
We should all be doing offsite backups on a regular basis, so why not have this as a feature of Ubuntu that actually helps you move into Ubuntu? Data storage is cheap; so is bandwidth (ignoring the fact that I live in a rural community with a fair number of dial-up users). Of course there would be security concerns as well. Users should be able to choose which files they would like to upload to the service. Certainly digital photos would be a huge thing that a lot of people would want to save, but don't really need to be "secured."
It's very possible there is already a service that integrates well with both Windows and Ubuntu that could be highlighted as both a backup and migration service for the home computer and small business market?
If you have an account on Brainstorm you should give the idea a thumbs up!
Whats wrong with dual
Whats wrong with dual booting until you're sure you want to stay with Ubuntu? As long as you're adding Ubuntu to the system it can already migrate all of your data. The only issue I see with this is that it copies all of your data, so if you change a file under Ubuntu and need it in windows you would need to put in on a USB drive.
www.getdropbox.com/ should
www.getdropbox.com/ should do that
+1 for dropbox
+1 for dropbox
unfortunately, Mozy does not
unfortunately, Mozy does not have a linux client for their service... look into SpiderOak - they have linux, mac, and windows clients, even a deb repository! (http://apt.spideroak.com/debian/ stable non-free)
I'll put in a recommendation
I'll put in a recommendation for Jungle Disk: http://jungledisk.com/ Windows, Mac, and Linux clients. The actual storage is on Amazon's S3 service, so you need to sign up for an account there. But for remote storage, backups, and sharing, it's great.