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List:       kde-core-devel
Subject:    Re: System Configure tool
From:       Andreas Pour <pour () mieterra ! com>
Date:       2001-05-06 21:16:37
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Chris Schlaeger wrote:
> 
> 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.

Hi,

I'm sorry, I don't follow how your customer base has anything to do with
configuration.  I think there are other things at work here, namely
unhealthy competition (unhealthy b/c it hurts all distributors and plays
right into MS's hands, the same way that UNIX failure to standardize
played into MS hands).

> 
> 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'm sorry but you are missing the main point.  Each tool stores the
information differently -- in some /etc file or a global config file or
whatnot -- but fundamentally *the information needed by the tool* is the
same for each distro.  Caldera and SuSE both need to know the same
information when configuring a network card.  Or a ppp account.  Or an
ISDN card.  Switching to IP6 doesn't change this.  (BTW, the reason they
all need the same info is they all use the same software to implement
this --  in the case of network cards ifconfig -- and b/c inherently
only certain info is needed, which is why network config dialogs in
Windows, Mac and Linux are so similar).

> 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.

The point is not to unify the tools, but the UI for entering
information.  Please, let's not create a problem that doesn't exist and
say this problem can't be solved.  If some distro's tool does not have a
way I can script my network settings, the tool needs fixing.  If it can
be scripted, then the UI frontend can use this script.

Ciao,

Dre

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