by , 2:05 PM EDT, October 29th, 2007

Time Machine is everything that Apple says it is, according to Adrian Kingsley-Hughes at ZDNet on Monday. More than that, it's brilliant and fantastic.

"Rather than waffle on about Time machine, I’m just going to cut to the point. Is Time Machine as good as Apple wants us to believe it is? In a word, yes. My experiences with Time Machine so far lead me to conclude that it’s not just good, it’s brilliant. It’s fantastic. It’s what I wish every backup tool was like," Mr. Kingsley-Hughes wrote.

The author cited three major concerns about backup software and why Time Machine handles each case beautifully:

• Ease of Use. For backups, the simpler the better.
• System Resources. Time Machine doesn't kill the Mac's responsiveness when archiving.
• Graceful Behavior. Time Machine can deal with the backup drive being disconnected in mid-backup. "Brilliant," was the description by the author.

Initial testing by Kingsley-Hughes revealed that, "Time Machine is the best backup tool that I’ve ever used -- I wish that there was a tool that was as good for Windows (there isn't, I know, because I've tested dozens)."

Note: for those who need to continue using Apple's Backup 3, version 3.1.2 for Leopard was posted last Friday.