[spiderjerusalem]

This can be amortized though. You spend one good weekend setting things up to your liking and dump your dotfiles and other config properly in a git repo and you don't have to do it every single time.

A one time xmonad + arch setup that I did a couple of years ago has lasted me across 3 machines with only minor tweaking.

[kosinus]

Dotfiles are like code, and need to be maintained. Some upgrade will break your custom configuration, and then you have to dive into docs again.

I try to make few customizations to the default macOS install, and just roll with the changes coming from Apple. I do have some dotfiles, containing mostly just SSH and ViM configs. But I've already had to fight ViM several times because of it.

[vinceguidry]

Maintenance is amortizable as well. Every time you have to do a deep dive to find out what's wrong, you learn a little more about the state of the art of that particular part of the world. Then you can make a change that is more robust.