From owner-freebsd-hackers Fri Jan 6 13:59:38 1995 Return-Path: hackers-owner Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.cdrom.com (8.6.9/8.6.6) id NAA03879 for hackers-outgoing; Fri, 6 Jan 1995 13:59:38 -0800 Received: from fslg8.fsl.noaa.gov (fslg8.fsl.noaa.gov [137.75.131.171]) by freefall.cdrom.com (8.6.9/8.6.6) with SMTP id NAA03873 for ; Fri, 6 Jan 1995 13:59:36 -0800 Received: by fslg8.fsl.noaa.gov (5.57/Ultrix3.0-C) id AA11461; Fri, 6 Jan 95 15:59:21 -0600 Received: from woody.fsl.noaa.gov by yarmouth.fsl.noaa.gov (1.37.109.14/SMI-4.1 (1.37.109.14)) id AA039649559; Fri, 6 Jan 1995 16:59:19 -0500 Date: Fri, 6 Jan 1995 16:59:19 -0500 From: kelly@fsl.noaa.gov (Sean Kelly) Message-Id: <199501062159.AA039649559@yarmouth.fsl.noaa.gov> Received: by woody.fsl.noaa.gov (1.37.109.14/SMI-4.1 (1.37.109.14)) id AA193709557; Fri, 6 Jan 1995 14:59:17 -0700 To: cg@FIMP01.fim.uni-linz.ac.at Cc: jkh@time.cdrom.com, hackers@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: <199501061750.SAA00134@uhura> (cg@uhura) Subject: Re: guest account: Yggdrasil information Sender: hackers-owner@freebsd.org Precedence: bulk >>>>> "Christian" == DI Christian Gusenbauer writes: Christian> Here at our institute, many people fell in love with Christian> Micro$oft's NT (not me!), because it's so simple to Christian> install and to administer. I'm afraid I have to agree. I'm not terribly familiar with PC hardware. The main reason I invested in it is so I could have UNIX for my home business---oh, and so my wife could do research for her Ph.D. FreeBSD looked like the best free UNIX for me. Anyway, so when we needed Windows for a certain application, the last thing I wanted to do was learn how to specify an IRQ in some .INI file, what order I should put things in my CONFIG.SYS, or how to configure my display card. Having so many things auto-detected and pointed-and-clicked let me focus on the application, not the host configuration. The same was true of OS/2. Linux seems to be doing quite well mimicking this behavior---and amassing quite a user base. Doesn't Red Hat Software offer a similar CD to Yggdrasil's latest---with graphical administration tools? Christian> 1. We have to make configuring as easy as possible for Christian> those users, who never want to look 'behind the Christian> scenes'. There should be a way to install and configure Christian> FreeBSD for *non-experts*! Right. But I don't think we should exclude the experts either. Perhaps what's needed is two levels of installation. Or a Expert Configuraton option that can drop the system-admin-savvy into a shell. Christian> 2. [ Use a GUI installation ] Agreed. Like I said above, with Windows and OS/2, GUI installations mean I didn't have to learn all about the peculiarities of a certain OS. Why couldn't we do just enough autodetection/asking the user about the environment to start a bare-bones X server, running in simple VGA mode, perhaps running from the CD-ROM, which would let people point-and-click on packages they want, select IRQs for devices, video modes supported, printers attached, monitors hooked up, etc. Christian> 3. All configuration (administration) tools should look Christian> and work the same way. I myself hate to have 10 tools Christian> and 10 different ways to install these things I've got mixed feelings about this point. I think one of UNIX's best assets is that there *is* a uniform administration tool: the text editor. Of course, that hasn't stopped various vendors from grafting on their own vendor-specific versions: SMIT, sysadm, etc. While I don't want to see yet-another-supposedly-easy-to-use-admin- tool-that-prevents-me-from-changing-the-netmask-of-just-one-blasted- interface, I have to admit that people who don't know vi, emacs, ed, ex, etc., couldn't even begin to do the task. Just make it so that it doesn't overwrite what I put in by hand. Christian> 4. Plug'n Play: I thought it was a ``sufficiently difficult'' problem to do autoconfiguration on the ISA architecture. Isn't that why many vendors ship systems with software already installed & working & please don't alter the configuration or tech support won't answer your questions? Christian> As long as I have to recommend OS/2 or Windows NT to my Christian> friends, FreeBSD or Linux is lost in space ;-). We could take a few cues from OS/2 with their ``Onramp to the Information Superhighway'' that comes with OS/2 Warp. This might require some assistance from Walnut Creek: why not push the fact UNIX networking has run most of the Internet for years and now you can have that same power in your home/office/home-office. Include a PPP/SLIP account setup hosted by Walnut Creek (or maybe other locally-accessible) service providers. Include a WWW browser. It just might fly. --k