I didn't mean to imply that it was personal, but your statement that it would be wise to use drakx (an installation utility) has the effect of questioning the validity of the yast2 (also an installation utility, soon to be administration as well) project and the competence of its developers (which could be percieved as an insult, even though that was not the intention). I agree that there comes a time when some projects, which are not working out, should be scrapped to avoid spending good money after bad (I've been on both sides of this one :-P). Good planning goes a long way to make sure these types of programs either aren't started or are killed early. I don't see yast2 as one of these projects, sure the first cut was a little inflexible and didn't fit everyone but it was a good start and should mature nicely. As to market sector, I imagine both are targeted at Linux administrators, even if the administrator is a home user with a single computer. Most ordinary users won't know (or care) which distribution they are using any more than they know or care which version of windows they have (I switched a friends machine from 95 to NT when they asked me to fix the crashing problem they had. It was over six months before they noticed the startup screen was different and I had told them I did it). Tim

-----Original Message----- From: m thompso [SMTP:thompso_m2@hotmail.com] Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2000 12:59 PM

I'm not insulting any persons! It is business; it is NOT personal.

My last 2 questions: 1) To Whom is SuSE Linux 6.3 marketed? 2) To Whom will SuSE Linux 6.4 be marketed?

Thanks to everyone who has responded to my earlier E-mail.

Thanks, Matt

...

From: Tim Duggan <tduggan@dekaresearch.com> To: suse-linux-e@suse.com Subject: RE: [SLE] YAST2 rocks! /LenZ Rant/ Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2000 15:11:47 -0500

-----Original Message----- From: m thompso [SMTP:thompso_m2@hotmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2000 12:45 PM

...

I agree that the SuSE kernel patches are wonderful, but that doesn't impress a Newbie if he can't get past the installation. The "average" Windoze user is not likely to drop their current Windoze OS if they can't get past the Linux installer. The installer is the "First" link in the chain. At a minimum, the installer should be either a "7" or "8" (on a scale of 1-10)!

Agreed, first impressions mean alot for some, but the pace of development (linux especially) is so fast that a 9 six months ago is considered a 5 or less today. YaST1 may no longer be the slickest utility around, but it does some things the others cannot, it has been well proven and is still one of the most useful utilities around.

...

Microsoft has a nice installation, but their OS isn't that

terrific.

...

SuSE Linux is a nice OS, but the YaST2 installer isn't that terrific.

YaST2 in 6.3 was going public for the first time. Like any newborn its legs and arms were short and it couldn't do all of the things people asked of it. Problems are to be expected with the introduction of something new, but you can't wait until development is finished (if it's ever finished) before getting feedback from customers. Bottom line is that sooner or later you must ship product and a decision has to be made when.

...

The "enemy" is NOT other Linux distributions. For that reason, SuSE would be wise to incorporate drakx and Lothar into the next SuSE release.

So all the money spent on the development of YaST2 should be chucked out the window? What about the developers at SuSE who have put in so much effort to produce it? How many times can you take something they have produced and unjustifiably belittle it? The fact is that the 6.3 version of YaST2, while not perfect, is the beginning of highly useful software. The originator of this thread apparently likes it and will probably enjoy the next release even more. While you are free to disagree with his opinion, it is in VERY poor taste to insult the individual developers (even if that were not the intent, it is the result) by implying that their project be chucked and replaced with someone else's software. Using your model, there would be very little software (most of it bad) and even less choice. My first experience with linux was with Yggdrasil's distribution (Plug and Play Linux fall '95, IIRC) and if all they did since then was include other people's software Linux would look more and more like Windows. One installer, one GUI, one more broken OS. If there is only one, is it really a choice?

Tim

...

Matt

<big snip>

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