You're right installing an OS is very fast and that's not the problem. It's rare that people don't need their applications installed and configured after a rec

You're right installing an OS is very fast and that's not the problem. It's rare that people don't need their applications installed and configured after a recovery? I completely disagree in this respect for a desktop OS with applications. People want their system exactly how it was before a catastrophic event. When do they want it? As soon as possible. They don't always remember how it was configured but just expect the end result to be as it was before a recovery. Using tools like Puppet and Ansible are needlessly complex for the everyday end user when a simple system restore from an image can get them back up and running.