On 02/03/2011 02:57 AM, Duncan Mac-Vicar P. wrote:
On 02/02/2011 09:33 PM, Patrick Shanahan wrote:
* Birger Kollstrand<birger.kollstrand@googlemail.com> [02-02-11 13:20]: ...
Also something to consider is in which platforms it should be usable. Gnome, KDE, +++ and also which HW platforms. Server? Desktop? Netbooks, Pads, appliances, mobile phones?
I was of the opinion (?mistakenly?) that YaST# was an openSUSE tool, not a desktop specific application.
Only considering Gnome/KDE and Server/Desktop would limit the possible userbase tremendously.
This is a very important part because as Linux evolved and YaST stayed the same, the needs for YaST are different.
Look at the desktop:
Who needs sound configuration? In 2003 it was pretty useful, but nowadays I only used the module to enable or disable pulseaudio, which is a thing the user should not care about as this switch exists only because pulseaudio was broken.
Printer? I don't remember configuring a printer since long time. They just show up.
Network. I only use yast2 lan when I break my factory system's networkmanager.
Package Management? See how beautifully integrated package management is in the KDE-4 user-mode control center. No root, simple interface. For something more advanced you have zypper, for something more friendly there is an appstore coming.
The only parts I see relevant in _my_ laptop to setup via YaST is fingerprint reader because they don't work out of the box (why?). I also create users because there is some extra magic in the way YaST does it. May be firewall.
However all the above could be done directly from the desktop, because you need app integration: ie, install P2P program, it should be able to open a port from the application.
So what is really YaST role in the desktop?
This sounds like you are advocating for no YaST. However, not every system is a desktop, not every system uses Network manager, .... the list goes on. I find the printer module quite useful, as well as the network configuration.... Yes, I could configure printers via the cups web based UI, but now I loose the integration. Following this train of thought to it's logical conclusion leads to running 20 different tools for every configuration task, that sucks ! One of the strengths of YaST is the integration it provides. Robert -- Robert Schweikert MAY THE SOURCE BE WITH YOU Novell-IBM Software Integration Center LINUX Tech Lead rschweikert@novell.com rschweikert@ca.ibm.com 781-464-8147 Novell Making IT Work As One -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: yast-devel+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: yast-devel+help@opensuse.org