On Thu, 03 Feb 2011, Duncan Mac-Vicar P. wrote:

On 02/02/2011 09:33 PM, Patrick Shanahan wrote:

* Birger Kollstrand<birger.kollstrand@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> [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?

Hi all, As I've just jumped on this list; shortly my background was first Unix since SVR5v.1, next SunOS/Solaris and third Linux since SUSE v.8.x, primary as user, secundary as administrator, but not as developer. Currently I also try to help with some openSUSE testing. IMO YaST tools has been the sole of SUSE, and YaST is what makes SUSE better and easier to configure than some other popular distributions I've had a look at. Indeed I felt only SUSE/YaST Linux was really better, easier, more advanced options and comprenhensive than the Solaris/Solstice gui admin-tools I had used in the nineties. I agree the YaST Control center and system admin tools must evolve and be revised according to what evolves as standard gui admin tools on the Linux desktops. Personal related desktop tools have already been collected as in the Gnome Control Center. As other Linux users and reviewers sometimes claim that YaST is unknown, confusing or difficult to be used with, it should be looked at if the YaST menu integration, task overview and user access can be designed even better. YaST's role on the desktop? Possibly not a directly answer or some off-topic, here is yet my opinion and user experience. First I like YaST as the common SUSE tools between all DE on openSUSE and SLE workstation as well as servers. Though Gnome is my primary desktop, I prefere to set it up with the qt interface, of course using YaST itself: YaST2 > System > Sysconfig_Editor > System > YaST2 > GUI > Wanted_GUI = qt I use DE and YaST on both networked laptop, workstation and combined workstation/server at home. As all my machines use local disks. networked mounted file systems and contain redudant and distributed data, file sharing, SSH/SFTP login and file transfer are used both for clients and servers. Even our SLES/OES2 server on my office has Gnome DE and YaST as standard installation available for the Xen dom0 console. How to remotely access the common known YaST tools may optionally vary through 'NX' or 'SSH -X' access. Here is my YaST grouped list of common used tools, sometimes in parallell with command line tools, which I feel complement each other: Hardware: *Hardware information *Scanner (easy setup for my Epson SCSI scanner, which has been difficult on other distros) *Printer (easy setup for our office network printer, as iPrint won't work for me on SUSE desktops) *Sound (previously for older hardware) Network devices: *Network setting (as backup if NM is broken and for VM with bridged network card) Networked services: *NFS, client and server *Samba, client and server *SSHD configuration (useful addon for easy setup of SSH/SFTP after initial OS installation) *xinetd security and users: *User and group management *Security center and hardening (typical predefined security for networked workstations) *Firewall Software: *Addon products *Software Management (software patterns, single packages and solving dependices, and else zypper up/dup) *Software repositories or Management (to add/edit repositories easier than with zypper) *Online Update (less used option) *Package search (webpin) system: */etc/sysconfig Editor (switch GDM/KDM, autologin, YaST with qt) *Partitioner (for overview and easy edit mount partions instead of /etc/fstab) *System services (Run level) Virtualization: *Create VM (Xen and install OS) *VM Manager (easy start/stop of Xen VMs) Terje J. Hanssen -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: yast-devel+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: yast-devel+help@opensuse.org