From kde-core-devel Sun May 06 12:26:21 2001 From: Chris Schlaeger Date: Sun, 06 May 2001 12:26:21 +0000 To: kde-core-devel Subject: Re: System Configure tool X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-core-devel&m=98915201311642 On Sat, May 05, 2001 at 02:42:42PM -0700, Charles Samuels wrote: > If the distros ever grow up and figure out that none of them will succeed > unless they all have one config tool, then that's their problem, I'm doing > this for our users, not theirs. If they want to use one config tool that > isn't this one, fine, I will stop development of this immediately, but until > then, I have a purpose. If you would take a look at the configurations tools of the distros you would soon realize that they use all fundamentally different concepts. This is mainly because they are targeting different customer bases, so they have very different requirement. If you would take a look at the sources of those tools you would soon realize that something as simple as a network configuration is already an extremely complex task. You need to worry about modems, ISDN cards, NICs, and a dozend different DSL flavours. All of them use ifconfig (at least in an IPv4 world) but the underlying configuration is strongly tight to the tools you have. For various reasons each distributor uses a different set of those tools, so there are no standard APIs whatsoever. Oh yes, and there is PCMCIA to make your live even more painful. And when IPv6 enteres the agenda, the whole mess starts all over again. I totally agree with you that a common set of admin tools across all Linux/UNIX platforms would be a really great thing to have. But I know quite well how difficult it is to create even a decent set of tools for a single distro I have total control over. Creating such tools for multiple distribution you have no or little control over seems to me impossible. Time is not just ready yet. Chris -- KDE 2.1: Conquer your Desktop! http://www.kde.org