This has been a week of learning. While I have been working on a new network installation I also plugged into a new desktop. My history of workstation goes way back:

• TRS-80
• IBM PC
• IBM XT
• IBM AT
• IBM luggable PC
• Sony palmtop
• too many custom PCs to mention
• Mac Mini
• Mac Laptop 2x
• Macbook Air
• Dell XP (linux)
• and maybe some Dell and HP desktop.
• and a handful of fanless PCs (linux)
• and a handful of Raspberry Pi’s

In recent years I have been all about ChromeBooks and ChromeBox from ASUS and Google. And I’ve added a couple of Intel NUC devices. And so when I say that there are some lessons learned I mean it.

• every time I get a new machine it takes months to get it to the point where the previous machine was. This also happens after OS upgrades.
• When I was experimenting with Linux desktops I might switch from one X11 manager to another. More pain.
• Even then deploying servers… the base server OS could vary and that takes so much time to refurbish.
• Then there is backups and recovery. Backups are only as good as the last recovery. I have never recovered machine or work environment. I always start over from scratch. The only time I had a marginal success was my family photos…. and I’ve lost track of that now.

While Pop!-OS has been good to me I’m just not happy. Everything I’m working on has artifacts and that’s just more junk to think about. One of my coworkers depends on Windows PCs but about once every two or three years she gets an upgrade at it takes months to complete. If she were ALL-IN google Chromebook she could lose the machine, get a replacement on amazon and never miss a beat.

I’ll be switching back to ChromeOS shortly… Maybe try some Chromium.