[BackupPC-users] BackupPC development status.

Hi,
this question has been asked before and I know I might be beating a dead horse.
Hopefully the horse is not quite dead... yet ;)

Questions are:
What is the current status of BackupPC development?
Released versions are now over one year old; is the project still alive?

Standard answer I saw to this is something like:
BackupPC is a mature product and frequent releases are not needed; use it as-is, it's good enough.

Having fought with BackupPC to install it in a non-standard environment (Synology NAS) I can testify
this answer captures only a part of reality.

There are parts with "rough edges" and a few thing I consider real bugs.

To give a very terse statement:
Things I like in BackupPC
1) pull model (as opposed to the "normal" push model implemented by other backup solutions).
2) strong deduplication.
Things I do not like in BackupPC
1) inflexibility of the pool mechanism (I doubt this can be overcome due to hard link model).
2) inflexibility of installation process (this could be easily loosened).
3) web user interface.

The last point is particularly important.
As once Linus Torvalds said, speaking about the early Linux releases:
It's not true Linux isn't "user friendly", it's only very choosy about its friends!

Current GUI is very powerful, but almost impossible for the casual user ("looser", if you wish).
To use it You need to understand perl and a plethora of non-trivial utility options, far beyond non-sysadmin knowledge.
I'm not a student with a lot of time on his hands, but I'm nonetheless willing to use some of my ample spare time to
enhance BackupPC *iff* this project is alive and kicking.
What is the "proper way" to send patches with any chance to get them included into the standard version?
Is this list the "right place" to discuss enhancements?
Is v3.3.1 a good starting point or should I jump to the (apparently unfinished) v4.0.0.beta3?
Also documentation seems to be unmaintained since looooong time (links are pointing to nowhere-land).

Any advice welcome
Thanks
Mauro

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