[Discuss] CrashPlan Home is discontinued - what's next?

[bogstad at pobox.com (Bill Bogstad)]

On Fri, Sep 1, 2017 at 2:53 AM, Rich Braun <richb at pioneer.ci.net> wrote:
>
>> That would be etckeeper which I've used for some time.
>
> If you're still editing /etc config files, consider taking the time to learn how to administer them in a centralized revision-controlled manner.

This is for a home environment where I will NEVER have more than 2 or
3 systems to manage and I am the only
person who changes system configuration.  Between etckeeper and
nightly incremental backups, I feel that I am adequately covered.
While I completely understand the utility of configuration management
systems for larger (or potentially larger) installations, I just don't
think they are needed for my use case.   The extra resources (both
human and system)
will never get paid back as far as I can see.   Maybe if I used such
systems on a daily basis in a job, I would feel differently.
However, I stopped doing professional system management before
configuration management became ubiquitous.  In addition, it seems
like every couple of years the "correct" CM package changes.  I keep
hoping that the market will eventually stabilize.

Alternatively, if one of the major Linux distributions were to adopt a
particular open source CM system as part of their default install and
document using it for system configuration; I would probably switch to
that distribution and start using CM.  Unfortunately, it seems like
all of the major distributions managed by commercial entities have
made CM an extra cost
addon.  The ones managed by non-commercial entities seem uninterested
in picking a single CM and just going with it.
Instead they make all of them available, but don't setup any of them.

Bill Bogstad

P.S.  If I'm wrong about the state of CMs or Linux distributions
please let me know.