as I started my ZorinOS journey on a notebook, I'm using it also now on my desktop computer, because its running fast and sleek. Heading towards Pro, because it's worth it.
As I set up the second installation, I experienced doing the whole individual stuff again, that already took hours:
Customizing the look & feel
Installing all the applications again, Nextcloud, Flatseal, ...
Config Flatseal, Firefox, Thunderbird mail accounts, Scan-Apps, printer, ...
Install certain WINE apps
Same problems happen from time to time again, freezing settings, wine app stuck/unresponsive, installed wine applications won't run
I wonder, if there is a way where you can just say: "Here is the profile on my notebook, sync to desktop."
And I have on both the same setup.
Make one change on either each will reflect on the other.
Tools like Ansible/Puppet are to OP for my simple use case I pressume?
"To synchronize settings across two devices running the same Linux distribution, you should use configuration management tools or file synchronization utilities tailored to the specific storage format of the settings.
1. Desktop Environment Settings (dconf/GSettings) For modern Linux desktops (GNOME, MATE, Cinnamon), settings are stored in a binary database at ~/.config/dconf/user . Since this file cannot be directly synced, you must export changes to a text format using the dconf command-line tool.
Export the database: dconf dump / > settings.txt
Apply changes on the target machine: dconf load / < settings.txt
To keep these in sync, you can store the settings.txt file in a version-controlled directory (like Git) or a synced folder (like Syncthing or Unison) and run the load command via a script or cron job.
2. Application and Dotfile Configuration For applications that store settings as plain text files (dotfiles) in ~/.config , ~/.local , or ~/.bashrc :
Stow : Use GNU Stow to manage symbolic links from a central ~/.dotfiles repository (managed by Git) to your home directory. This allows you to push/pull changes via Git.
Unison or Syncthing : Use these tools for bidirectional synchronization of specific directories like ~/.config and ~/.local/share . Unison is particularly effective for handling conflicts and ensuring both machines have the same files without overwriting local customizations unintentionally.
3. System-Wide and Package Synchronization If you also need to synchronize installed software and system configurations (/etc ):
Packages : Export the package list on the source machine using dpkg --get-selections > packages.list and import it on the target using dpkg --set-selections < packages.list followed by apt-get dselect-upgrade .
System Configs : Use rsync to mirror /etc and /var/lib directories, though this requires careful exclusion of machine-specific files (like network keys or hardware-specific drivers) to avoid conflicts.
Best Practice Recommendation Avoid syncing entire home folders blindly due to lock files and hardware-specific configurations (.xauthority , .cache ). Instead, sync only specific configuration directories (like ~/.config for apps and ~/.dotfiles for shell configs) using a tool like Syncthing (for real-time sync) or Git (for version-controlled, manual sync), and apply desktop environment settings via dconf scripts.
Something like this doesn't exist that Way. You could manually check Stuff but ... There would be NixOS who offer something similar to this where You can move config Files from one System to another and then it is set up the same but this is the whole Concept of Nix.
I know from another Thing but don't remember the Name. It was more for SysAdmins when they have to set up several PC's. There is a prepared File with the Setup and during the Installation this file is used to set up the System. If I remember correctly Ubuntu supports that ... but only Ubuntu directly.
no entiendo por que tuviste que instalar nuevamente Zorin si pudieras clonarlo es decir Copiar el disco entero y trasladarlo al SSD huerfano y cuando lo pones en PC de escritorio le das como particion primaria y wala eso en cuestion de minutos se habria echo enseguida de echo hay heramientas en zorin que te hace todo el trabajo ais evitarias el engorro de meter e-mails y pasword iD`s etc te habrias ahorado mucho tiempo no importa claro no supiste eso es normal recien empiezas .y par ala proxima crea un respaldo por si algo falla y tener uno de respaldo te vendra bien..