As forecast, I've switched from Mac back to Linux on the Desktop. I'm using a work-supplied Thinkpad T470s which is a nice form-factor machine (the the T450s was the first Thinkpad to widen my perspective away from just looking at the X series).

I've installed Debian to get started and ended up with GNOME 3 as the desktop (I was surprised to not be prompted for a choice in the installer, but on reflection that makes sense, I did a non-networked installed from the GNOME-flavour of the live DVD). So for the time being I'm going to stick to GNOME 3 and see what's new/better/worse than last time, but once my replacement SSD arrives I can revisit.

I haven't made much progress on the sticking points I identified in my last post. I'm hoping to get 1pass up and running in the interim to read my 1Password DB so I can get by until I've found a replacement password manager that I like.

Most of my desktop configuration steps I have captured in some Ansible playbooks. I'm looking at Ansible after a long break from using puppet, and there's things I like and things I don't. I've also been exploring ownCloud for personal file sharing and despite a couple of warning signs (urgh PHP, official Debian package was dropped) I'm finding it really useful, in particular for sharing stuff with family. I might write more about both of those later.