[debosmit]

Re: if a computer can run scripts in a pod, can’t you just run them locally?

It’s a construct of the order of operations.

One core issue with local is the variety of OS’ and local build tools that would fundamentally mess with the centralized scripts. Getting company-wide setup scripts to work on top of existing laptop config was a continuous challenge. Hence, having a consistent baseline (OS flavor, system-level packages) on top of which the company-wide “setup script” is added followed by “developer-customizations” seems to work great.

Central teams can manage the first couple of steps and individual user-specific configuration can be managed much better in a decentralized manner.