Summer Development Roadmap

This is an update on the development for Backup Nexus, or bun.

Our focus for the past few months has been to bring bun up to a baseline level of usability. Because the focus was on polishing bun, we were making rapid releases every two weeks. All of this culminated in beta 6 last week, which is now in a very stable state.

Since we have gotten bun to the baseline level functionality, the development focus for the next few months will be shifting to the back-end. Some of our plans include bringing a faster server cluster online, which would help with connectivity. In addition, the back-end enhancement will allow us to quicken our pace of future development and push out some truly exciting features, which we have been craving to work on ever since bun was conceived. A new web site is also in the making.

What does all this mean for you? It means that in the immediate future, there will be a less frequent release of bun. During this time, beta 6 is fully supported and you can continue to use it. The project will look quiet from the outside, but rest assured we are working hard on the inside.

The best is yet to come.

Beta 6 Available

Fresh from the oven, we bring you another release of bun (that's what we call Backup Nexus in the lab).

Bun, I mean, pun intended :).

This is another solid release, incorporating several enhancements:

• General performance improvements
• Better compression ratio for your files
  
• Multiple-platform support for Mac, Windows and Linux

We are very excited about this release of bun. It is the first release with versions for Mac and Linux, in addition to the existing Windows version. We have worked hard on integrating bun with both Linux and Mac desktops, so that it plays well with your environment.

If you are a Mac user, simply unpack the .dmg image and drag the .app file to your Applications folder. You can then start bun by launching it from your Application folder. As a bonus, bun will set itself to start when you login to your Mac desktop, so you need not remember to run it every time you log in.

If you are a Linux user, this release is a bit spartan in the way of installer, but that's probably the way you want it anyway. Simply download the tarball, unpack to /usr/local (or any location of your choosing), and run the script to start bun. The only extra steps you need to do is to make sure that you have a way to launch the BackupNexus script when your login to your desktop (instructions available for GNOME, KDE, and other desktops).

You can download bun for Windows, Mac, or Linux here.

Beta 5 Available

Beta 5 release of Backup Nexus (or as we affectionately calls it, bun) is now available. This is a substantial release, with a host of new enhancements:

• Faster startup
  
• Handle multi-thousand files with ease (up to tens of thousands)
• Better notifications when backup or restore is happening
• More compact encoding, now reduces storage and download size by 30% - 50%
• Significantly reduced background memory usage when not doing any processing
• General performance increase, thanks to a better execution engine
• Many other miscellaneous small fixes and touches too
  

Given the amount of new features and improvements, this is one of the most exciting releases yet. As usual, the installer on the site has been updated. You can download it here.

(Note: this entry previously contained old release timeline, which is no longer current)

Beta 4 Available

After a full week of hard work, beta 4 is now ready! This release includes the following enhancements:

• Drastically reduced CPU usage, making it safe to run on laptops, even when on battery
  
• Faster startup time
• Direct support for special folders, such as Desktop or Home folders
• Various tweaks for better stability
  

As always, you can download the latest version here.

Beta 3 Available

Hot on the heels of beta 2, we have another new minor beta release ready. In this release:

• Made the backup less frequent and thus less intrusive
  
• Fixed issue with network connectivity
• Resolved problem with automatic restarting

Due to changes in the way the program is launch, this beta release cannot be automatically update by beta 2 installation. Instead, please uninstall beta 2, and download the beta 3 installer from the download page to perform a fresh install. In the future, we will strive to keep automatic update working for the majority of the time, so you would not have to manually update Backup Nexus.

Beta 2 Available

Beta 2 has just been released. This release features several enhancements and fixes, including:

• Much faster sign up
  
• A new overclock mode for when you when to quickly backup or restore files
• Backup Nexus now tells you when and how many files it is backing up
• A problem on computer with IPv6 network interface has been resolved
  

If you are running beta 1 right now, beta 2 should be an automatic update for you. In fact, by the time you read this announcement, your installation has most likely already been updated. If you haven't yet installed beta 1, you can download beta 2 here.

We are hard at work on beta 3. It should be out by the end of May. In the meantime, we are here to help. Send us an email at support [at] backupnexus.com if you need anything.

Beta 1 Available

The beta 1 release of Backup Nexus is now available. You can download it here.

This release has undergone a good amount of testing and is fairly stable. Like any other beta software, there are a few small issues:

• Automatic tuning not yet available. Backup Nexus still runs quietly in the background, but if you take your laptop mobile, it may drain your battery.
• Occasionally, registration will come back with a connection error. The solution is to retry it again. In the worst case, you may need to wait 10 minutes before retrying.
  

Automatic update is enabled in this release, so as future beta and releases are rolled out, you should have them without needing to reinstall again.

As we continue to improve Backup Nexus, we want to hear about your experience with the beta. Please let us know by sending an email to feedback [at] backupnexus.com.