Re:Ask HN: How long does it take to setup your dev environment?
by twunde on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @10:46AM
(#16628999)
This will change your life. What you're looking for is called MDM or mobile device management. This is essentially configuration management for laptops or phones, but designed so that these devices can be used in an ad-hoc manner. Apple was the first to really introduce this, but it's available for ChromeOS and Windows 10 (plus Android/iOS). For your personal desktops I would take a look at fleetsmith.com
I solemnly swear I'll keep it up to date, but then again I said the same thing with the system I'm replacing - which I'd configured with ansible. At the very least all my dotfiles and projects are stored in git, so mostly getting a workable system is trivial - it's things like setting up arduino-studio, firefox (installed from binary releases to /opt, because I want to be current), and similar niggles that are hard.
I can configure hundreds of servers with puppet, but desktops tend to be used for so much adhoc work that is hard to script, that keeping them current and automated is a lot of work.
(e.g. My wife suddenly says "I want XXXX", so I login and set it up, then forget about it for a few years.)