From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Sep 17 21:04:55 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 276DE106564A for ; Mon, 17 Sep 2012 21:04:55 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mad@madpilot.net) Received: from micro.madpilot.net (micro.madpilot.net [88.149.173.206]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 85FD68FC0A for ; Mon, 17 Sep 2012 21:04:54 +0000 (UTC) Received: from micro.madpilot.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by micro.madpilot.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3XLKbL54QQz2rv; Mon, 17 Sep 2012 23:04:46 +0200 (CEST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/simple; d=madpilot.net; h= content-transfer-encoding:content-type:content-type:in-reply-to :references:subject:subject:mime-version:user-agent:from:from :date:date:message-id:received:received; s=mail; t=1347915884; x=1349730285; bh=+4cDyOZ6obt+xigPteEsjNxUAfvkQF+Z7F+M5uPp2AU=; b= AddcVZFNDliZDy5hQAXyf4IYygDGQ+24EnZqv62PHBgrjD5CBMsVm0McARNphiN8 uxR6Zwa+GEHqkr6SCP2WeVFHtckJCxGMWreJBlqCbkq+ex5U0zAHkAjGcya8Xu6H gCPuv6iG42e87Lvmt7NLZ3eWshxsuf7qNJfmgWzjBUk= X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at madpilot.net Received: from micro.madpilot.net ([127.0.0.1]) by micro.madpilot.net (micro.madpilot.net [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id zbMg5WBnKiQI; Mon, 17 Sep 2012 23:04:44 +0200 (CEST) Received: from tommy.madpilot.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by micro.madpilot.net (Postfix) with ESMTP; Mon, 17 Sep 2012 23:04:44 +0200 (CEST) Message-ID: <5057906C.9090002@madpilot.net> Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2012 23:04:44 +0200 From: Guido Falsi User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD amd64; rv:15.0) Gecko/20120912 Thunderbird/15.0.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Zhihao Yuan References: In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: FreeBSD Hackers Subject: Re: My explanation to "a default DE" (was "Providing a default graphical environment on FreeBSD") X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2012 21:04:55 -0000 On 09/17/12 21:13, Zhihao Yuan wrote: > 1. Maximize graphical user experience by officially implementing Wifi > helpers, auto-mounters; I think your examples are ill conceived. A good automounter definitely does not need a GUI. What I think of as a autmounter should just be some kind of background process managing devices and mounts. Something like AMD with a sane configuration and some better ability to detect mobile devices appearing and disappearing(bonus points for figuring out how to sync a filesystem after relevant storage device has already been unplugged...Having a button to unmount it is just another way to do "umount /media/foo" and no real solution to the problem...And there are already various such toys in the ports collection). (And no, I have no idea how to do that, but I'm "getting things done" on my systems with a mix of AMD and sysutils/automount, I will move to a better setup if I find one or ever find time to conjure one myself) The GUI is just an additional component of that, once you have that (difficult) part the GUI can be added...in fact more than one for the many toolkits/DEs can be coded in fraction of the effort needed for the main part. Same goes for wifi. I'd really like to have more control on wpa_supplicant and friends and be able to reconfigure it on the fly with just a few commands/clicks, which is not so simple right now, but the background part is one thing the GUI is another. BTW for this case too there is a whole set of problems due to authorizations. various other OSes have solved this in many ways, most common solution used to be to just make every user "root"(or whatever the other OS calls it ;) Also, you should also have a look at net-mgmt/wifimgr if you really can't do without a mouse. If the point you're stating is about functionality that's my opinion. If you're talking about common look and feel and eyecandy then I have no opinion since I don't really understand that and so don't care. What is really important to me is that system tools be fully usable via terminal and with human manageable text configuration files. A GUI only autmounter is just a toy. a good automounter daemon with an API for a GUI could be a great thing for all users, server, desktop, embedded... -- Guido Falsi