I recently started hosting a dotfile repository on Gitlab (I will migrate away to self-hosting on the long term), and although it doesn't hurt to use the git or

I recently started hosting a dotfile repository on Gitlab (I will migrate away to self-hosting on the long term), and although it doesn't hurt to use the git or tig from CLI (and learn the arguments) I've found Sublime Merge to be an exceptionally easy to learn Git client. I also made a repository for my shell scripts, and one for my fonts. I'm using GNU Stow to manage the symlinks. I sync my shell config together with $PATH (includes hostname and OS specific $PATH variables). Its some work, but the more you refine it the better it is going to work for your different machines. As for imaging, I'd build a script which you'd run after install and "does all the things". On macOS you got brew, on Windows choco/scoop, and on Linux whatever package managers you use. I use Topgrade to maintain all the different package managers in existence.