Blueprint is a nice step in that direction: make a change and dump out the environment.
Perhaps what we need is a system that compiles to that manifest, or to chef/puppet.
Setting up systems is a complex task that neither puppet nor chef solve, they make it less daunting, but it still is a real pain to do so!
would work?
Wound't the system become a nightmare once I start installing/changing stuff in the machine in a very organic way?
Meaning, I'd have to go and maintain that manifest???
Ideally you want to "compile down" to cloudlets. With smart change management tools you can make it really simple for the user. That sounds exactly like Stackrocket's cup of tea :)
I was thinking more along the lines of something truly generic.