Thanks for the replies. Next questions...

1) I run with 3 users on my Gentoo machine and my Devuan machine...
* root (admin stuff)
* waltdnes (day-to-day regular stuff)
* user2 (special projects)

I now have static IP set up. Each account on both machines can now
ssh/scp to all 3 accounts on the other machine without password prompts.
I seem to have a terminal-type conflict when running xterm over ssh.
Text that should clear off often remains. Using "vim" or "mc" or any
text app on xterm over ssh is rather hairy. Heck, when I installed mc
from the command line over ssh, I was waiting a while with the "apt
install mc" progress bar at 87%, before I realized that it was an
uncleared left over, and the command prompt was blinking above the
progress bar. How do I align terminal types, or whatever? Preferably
change on the Gentoo machine to align with the Devuan machine. I expect
to be running with 2 Devuan machines eventually.

2) I've got "sudo" sort of working. It still needs me to enter my
user password before proceeding. Is this standard or am I doing
something wrong? I've "asked Mr. Google" and added "waltdnes" to group
sudo, as well as making a change in /etc/suders vith "visudo".

3) What critical portions of the system should I back up regularly?
Right now I expect that it should be something like...

* /etc
* /root
* /home/user2
* /home/waltdnes

I want to run with 2 machines, with one being a "near-hot-backup"
updated occasionally so that if the main machine fails catastrophically,
I lose a few days of stuff at worst.

--
There are 2 types of people in this world
1) Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data