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List:       kde-core-devel
Subject:    Re: System Configure tool
From:       Chris Schlaeger <cs () kde ! org>
Date:       2001-05-05 21:29:02
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> IMHO there is a lot of substance to what Charles said, not b/c
> distributors are incompetent but b/c they have their self-interests to
> consider.  Whereas UNIX of old was severely hampered by API differences,
> the same will happen to Linux of new with GUI differences, unless this
> problem is nipped in the bud.

The "no common configuration tool" problem certainly exists and I
think many of the larger distributors are aware of this. But it is
also true that installation and configuration tools are their most
prominent differenciator. So they will stick to their own tools as
long as distribution reviews consists primarly of installation
descriptions. Having a single set of configuration tools is
certainly a good goal.

But wanting these tools to be KDE applications might seem obvious in
our little KDE world, but neglect the scope of machines Linux covers
even today. It runs on everything from a wrist watch to an S/390
mainfraime but KDE only runs on a subset of those. KDE is a desktop
environment that can be optionally run on a Linux/UNIX
machine. Bundling the configuration to the GUI would be the same
mistake that Microsoft has made with windows. There are over 20
different ways to install or administer a Linux machine. Not even half
of them require or provide an X11 based install.

So a common administration suite must also be limited to the least
common denominator of all Linux systems. This is a text interface or
even just a simple socket protocol. It's certainly a challeging and
interesting taks, but for sure not a KDE thing. We might provide a GUI
interface, but the tools need to there first. Package installers and
auto-update tools falls into this category as well. They are not a KDE
thing, they are a distribution thing.

Currently there are only 2 or 3 different administration suits that
were all developed by distributors. All provide only basic support for
a client type machine but took already years to develop. The
distributors have teams of 5 - 20 developers working full-time on them
and they hardly get it right for their own distribution. All these
tools are strongly integrated with the distribution and I can only
encourage everybody who would like to start such a project to have a
very close look at the *drake, lizzard and YaST2 sources. And also
look at their mutation over a couple of releases to get a feeling for
the strong interconnection of the administration tools and the rest of
the distro.

If you want to take the challenge, go ahead, but you probably won't
get the manpower you need. Administration tools are a no-fun-job. Look
at the other postings of this threat and look who's not in favour of
such a project. Most of them know pretty much what they are talking
about.

Chris

-- 
KDE 2.1: Conquer your Desktop!
http://www.kde.org

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