For a laptop, I just enable to Power-on and disk password (and lock admin). That's going to stop 99.99% of the thieves (and protect the data from them), and, better yet, give the thieves a laptop that isn't good for much at a pawnshop, so they're less likely to return for a second pass.
Any systems are imaged (clonezilla) with the images stored off site, and the data is backed up (and on a weekly basis swapped with off-site backup (taking drive to work after confirming routine with employer).
My smartphone IS a full-fledged computer with a tiny screen. If I want to emulate a desktop with a bigger screen, all I need is a bluetooth keyboard and Chromecast/Miracast.
I too inherited an aging infrastructure, and have mostly replaced all of, well, everything, with mostly what you're talking about, so have faced some of the decisions you're looking at, and used VMWare for much of that upgrade.
Home Office (in this context):
Dual vmware servers, each having generally the VM instances:
System:
Guest #1: Windows 2008: Domain controller, DHCP, DNS, WINS
Guest #2: CentOS: Radius
Guest #3: CentOS: WWW, FTP
Network a dual link running BGP, with VPNs to each of the remote sites, which have their own server for DNS (a slave) and DHCP (in case the VPN link is down).
Using VMWare for services that aren't redundant as well. All VMs back up to the other VMWare server (with Ranger) so I can bring up guest VMs if their VMWare server fails. Virtualization gives me very easy DR (instead of having to recover an OS, I only have to recover a VM), easy hardware upgrades (migrate the VM), and generally the services are redundant for OS and hardware maintenance so I can patch and reboot without disrupting most services.
More complex than that in practice, but you get the idea.
So when I wanted old DND material, I could go online, and purchase the PDF and WoTC made money. I can't buy them directly from WoTC because old modules / campaign materials aren't published anymore.
Buying them used (say ebay) makes no money for WoTC. Downloading them from a torrent makes no money for WoTC.
Brilliant. WoTC has removed any way I can purchase them and have WoTC make money (and encourage me to look for other sources). Since I can't obtain them in a way that WoTC makes money, WoTC doesn't lose money if I get them another way. So they shouldn't be able to claim losses, since I can't buy them otherwise.
Slashdot Mirror
https://xkcd.com/1252/
For a laptop, I just enable to Power-on and disk password (and lock admin). That's going to stop 99.99% of the thieves (and protect the data from them), and, better yet, give the thieves a laptop that isn't good for much at a pawnshop, so they're less likely to return for a second pass. Any systems are imaged (clonezilla) with the images stored off site, and the data is backed up (and on a weekly basis swapped with off-site backup (taking drive to work after confirming routine with employer).
My smartphone IS a full-fledged computer with a tiny screen. If I want to emulate a desktop with a bigger screen, all I need is a bluetooth keyboard and Chromecast/Miracast.
Home Office (in this context): Dual vmware servers, each having generally the VM instances:
System:
Guest #1: Windows 2008: Domain controller, DHCP, DNS, WINS
Guest #2: CentOS: Radius
Guest #3: CentOS: WWW, FTP
Network a dual link running BGP, with VPNs to each of the remote sites, which have their own server for DNS (a slave) and DHCP (in case the VPN link is down).
Using VMWare for services that aren't redundant as well. All VMs back up to the other VMWare server (with Ranger) so I can bring up guest VMs if their VMWare server fails. Virtualization gives me very easy DR (instead of having to recover an OS, I only have to recover a VM), easy hardware upgrades (migrate the VM), and generally the services are redundant for OS and hardware maintenance so I can patch and reboot without disrupting most services.
More complex than that in practice, but you get the idea.
So when I wanted old DND material, I could go online, and purchase the PDF and WoTC made money. I can't buy them directly from WoTC because old modules / campaign materials aren't published anymore.
Buying them used (say ebay) makes no money for WoTC. Downloading them from a torrent makes no money for WoTC.
Brilliant. WoTC has removed any way I can purchase them and have WoTC make money (and encourage me to look for other sources). Since I can't obtain them in a way that WoTC makes money, WoTC doesn't lose money if I get them another way. So they shouldn't be able to claim losses, since I can't buy them otherwise.