SavvyWolf

They aren’t available as regular boot options, so you need to use timeshift itself to switch to them. It provides a cli though so it can be used in cases where you’ve broken your x server.

I’m not sure if it’s treating “localhost” as a hostname or not, but does replacing it with 127.0.0.1 function as expected?

I don’t know how available it is for other distros, but Mint has a gui tool called Timeshift that allows you to take and restore snapshots.

Snapshots seem an ideal tool for the job. It won’t replace a full backup system, but as long as the cost of failure (such as you mistyping a command and nuking the disk’s partition data or something) is only a few hours of OS reconfiguration rather than losing priceless family photos, it should work.

I use btrfs snapshots on my system. When I’m about to do something “risky” (e.g. trying out kde or cosmic) I take a snapshot beforehand. Then when I want to go back, I just restore the snapshot and reboot.

For /home, there won’t be a lot of OS configuration there, and if it’s a burner machine you probably won’t have much personalisation done on it. However, if you want to backup configuration there, look into a dotfile manager.

Honest comment: Bitsocial sounds an awful lot like Truth Social.

If that comparison is unintentional and not desired, maybe reconsider the name.

If that is intentional, we are probably not your target audience.