Streamline the process of reinstalling an operating system from scratch.
One shortcut is an overlay network filesystem. This assumes a constantly network-connected computer. Installed files are allocated on disk, but symbolically linked to a network resource that gets downloaded on-demand after the install (and in the background, finishing up the install after the first boot).
We want to avoid as much computation by the installer package manager as possible, just "copying" files, so avoid preinst and postinst scripts.
As bad an idea as it seems, even routine minor upgrades (assuming user modifications are saved somehow) could be "wipe and quickly reinstall from scratch". This helps enforce all machines look the same, with no dependence on which order packages were installed. (Prove package installation to be commutative, assuming satisfied dependencies.)
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