I've looked at someguy's witness node in a box before (the dockerised version), but my brain cannot fathom many of the concepts - because, I am not a sys admin :P

If we have a shell script that lets anyone deploy a witness node, given an operating system and a hardware requirement - and clear instructions on what needs to be added to the config, then we would probably see a lot more witness nodes up and running.

For me, that's the dream state for hive :)

Turn on a computer, run a script. Put in your priv key for declaring you're a witness, wait for the chain to sync, and presto, go and campaign for some votes based on your reptuation / history around the place (and your ability to feed the server power, data, and care over an extended period)