Originally Posted by artie505
I think I'm still missing something.

In Big Sur, my CCC task updated my data volume every day but never touched my system volume, so whenever there was an upDATE I erased the volume containing the existing clone and created a new clone with the updated system volume.
All I can tell you is when I re-cloned the data volume of a bootable Big Sur clone it was no longer bootable and Mike Bombich has reported similar results and IIRC he did not indicate there was any difference between Intel and Apple silicone in that regard.

[quote=artie505]As we've already discussed, though, competing with Time Machine is an awfully big challenge, particularly if he hopes to perpetuate CCC as a $40 app. [/quote

That is a question only the market can answer. As I have said before this whole episode has lead me to re-think the value much less necessity of bootable clones.
  1. While I continue to keep a clone around, it is more from habit and/or convenience not out of necessity. *¹
  2. I cannot recall ever actually using a clone for anything other than an experimental purposes
  3. If you read the latest CCC User Guide Mike Bombich does not recommend the use of a bootable clone for backup and seems to question their usefulness
  4. The M1 Mac boot process always begins on the internal drive and ASR clones are not bootable stand-alone which further limits their utility. I don't know if this is true for Intel Macs or not


*¹ My layered Backup Strategy In retrospect I am going to look at how to fold CCC into my strategy (would that be belt, suspenders, and elastic waistband?), but it is doubtful a bootable clone will be included other than as a toy or proof of concept.


"All you've got to do is own up to your ignorance
honestly, and you'll find people who are eager to
fill your head with information"
--Walt Disney