Not a full OS-diff, but there is a way to dump all the packages installed on a machine: $ mpm --output-format json installed > installed.json Source: http

Not a full OS-diff, but there is a way to dump all the packages installed on a machine: $ mpm --output-format json installed > installed.json Source: https://github.com/kdeldycke/meta-package-manager/ https://github.com/kdeldycke/meta-package-manager/ With regular snapshots you can at least eliminate new installed software as the root cause of an issue. Doesn't solve the issue with preferences though.