long long ago, version control was something i avoided as i was yet to see it's benefits and it was an avoidance to the problem at hand (learning to program).
Right, because your backup is a VERSION of the code that you want to keep around, in case you need it right?
Some version control tools don't let you create local, private versions. That is too bad. That doesn't mean that doing so is not a version control concern.
IMO version control, file versioning and backups should all be separate things and ideally all available.
Even when using a version control system that allows for robust local branches, sometimes it is nice to be able to revert a specific file's state to a known recent version that you never bothered to commit. Sometimes editor undo is sufficient for this, sometimes not. Dropbox and Google Drive have both saved me some time in this area (like 15-30 minutes, not days, but even that is appreciated) recently.
Isn't that just evidence that your commits aren't granular enough? Certainly, simply backing things up generally won't solve your problem, since good backup procedure can involve offsite storage being hours out of date.
