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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: KControl brainstorming
From:       Christophe Devriese <oelewapperke () ulyssis ! org>
Date:       2004-01-06 13:55:16
Message-ID: 200401061455.16903.oelewapperke () ulyssis ! org
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On Tuesday 06 January 2004 11:33, Tom Chance wrote:
> > If we go with a system like this we can make "configuration themes" e.g.
> > we produce a .kconfig file which allows you to configure users which have
> > (a number of) mailaccounts and (a number of) websites, a (number of)
> > local users, to be used on webhosting systems.
>
> That's an enormously adventurous project you're proposing, that KDE might
> have the backend technology and linked UIs to (potentially) configure every
> software package on someone's machine.
>
> I'm not sure why we would want to distribute Apache settings, for example,
> in a kconfig file though; surely Apache's own configuration files suffice,
> and avoid the system duplicating settings across files? You might run into
> problems when a user alters Apache's own configuration file and it goes out
> of sync with the kconfig file, which would most likely happen if they
> wanted to tweak something that KConfig didn't support yet.
>
> I think we can simply extend the idea of KCMs and KControl/KInfo, which
> already implements a kind of backend/frontend system akin to the one you
> propose, and make it easier for people, particularly distributors, to work
> on KCMs for system configurations like Apache that support all of the nice
> features you suggest. Again, a lot of this could go through
> freedesktop.org, such that DEs share a common layer between the system and
> the UIs.
>
> Your ideas also don't provide an obvious solution to the problem that is
> really being discussed now, which is: how do we present all of these KCMs
> in a UI, or in multiple UIs? Allowing a heedless proliferation of
> configuration tools would only serve to confuse users, as from one isntall
> to the next you'd have completely different kinds of tools. But certainly a
> carefully planned diversity of frontends could be good, as the
> KControl/KAdmin discussion has already suggested and as the current
> normal/advanced system shows.

To make it a lot shorter I would propose we make a something ver much like 
KPersonalizer the default configuration program where you could choose 
between a number of default configurations.

First you'd choose a "theme". You'd have "I don't want to config this" "newbie 
willing to learn" "power user" and "if there is a setting to change the 
second pixel on the right to blue, it better be in my configuration screen".

"I don't want to config this" would present you with a general tab where you 
can select "everything like windows" that sets everything to feel like 
windows (key combinations) "default config" that sets everything to it's 
present defaults. Then you'd have the theme manager, Background (but the 
buttons for configuring multiple desktops would be missing), Email (which 
would be able to configure 1 smtp and 1 pop account, and (maybe) a way to 
change your login icon, but that would be it. 5 options total, something you 
could fill in completely in 5 minutes tops.

Oelewapperke

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