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While I have tried to do things with Ansible, it was always more hassle than I could be bothered with for my personal computer. My current answer is use Arch, k
by thom 7y ago
While I have tried to do things with Ansible, it was always more hassle than I could be bothered with for my personal computer. My current answer is use Arch, keep a list of installed packages, and restore a backup (of a subset of directories). I have come to accept that /etc is as good a declarative description of a system as you’re going to get.
- thom 7y agoI should point at that I use a single laptop for everything until it’s replaced, and all I need on servers is a subset of my dotfiles, and most importantly my .emacs.d which I additionally store in git. Obviously if you have a workstation in the office and a Mac laptop and a Windows PC for gaming then good luck to you.
- zzzcpan 7y agoSame. I've tried to automate this for Ubuntu-based desktops as well, but it didn't work out and I also ended up with Arch. Arch solves the problem by having a rolling release (no OS upgrades) and by keeping things minimal and barebones.
- thom 7y agoI also feel like I pay much more attention on Arch to avoiding cruft, and having the exact right config in /etc. At first I have to admit that I thought Arch was just a weird form of role-play where Linux people deliberately made their lives difficult to feel clever, but I can't deny I've learned a huge amount about configuration and simplicity since switching. With Ubuntu I'd mostly started treating it like Windows, which is great in a way, but not really what I want out of a system.