John writes...

Hi Wes,

I took note of you mentioning a possible root on ZFS setup for your new laptop, and I would definitely recommend giving this a shot. I don't know what distro you plan on using but in the past few years I've been using nothing but root on ZFS on Arch, with binary updates from archzfs https://github.com/archzfs/archzfs, and have had a flawless experience. I love having essentially free snapshots on a recurring basis, basically keeping me Version Control for my entire system.

I also wasn't happy with Linux not having a properly supported boot environment client, so I wrote my own - zedenv https://github.com/johnramsden/zedenv. It removes the worry of a kernel update, or system change causing issues since you can create a new boot environment and make your new changes there. If you happen to give root on ZFS a shot, and are looking for a boot environment client, please take a look at it.

Best of luck with your new computer!

John Ramsden