Larry Marshall wrote: > > > Keep all the packages up-to-date > > Probably not a popular opinion but it makes more sense to keep most of > those packages one version behind the cutting edge in your official > distributions. All you need to do is look at what's going on right now > with RH7.0 to see that being on the edge can spell lots of trouble. If > you're going after the Windows user you can't have things crashing and > being incompatible as they just aren't going to buy into the "download > this and compile" model. This really depends on the package itself. Redhat was really stupid to release a package not supported by the developers. However, when, for example, samba 2.2.0 comes out, I would be very happy for Mandrake to ship a CD the next day that has RPMs on it. Why ? Because I know the samba team are almost religious about the stability of their software. They had samba 2.2.0-alpha0 running for more than 2 weeks without any problems before officially releasing the alpha0 snapshot. It comes down to a judgement call. I would advocate Mandrake even putting in cutting edge apps that are only available in the expert install. [snip] > > get rid of junk progs (WE NEED YOUR HELP HERE!) Maybe it would be an idea to have a web site where we can rate the current packages in Mandrake and elect new packages (I vote "no" from gnomba, and "yes" for LinNeighbourhood in advance!). > You know what I think? I think you need to change the way you divide up > the installation options. You're doing a really good job of letting > experts select what they want installed. You do nothing to allow > non-computer saavy people to do this. v7.2 seems to even drop the > "normal/developer" option from the basic installation. In one way that > makes sense why can't a less-than-expert person decide whether they want > games on their machine or not? The "custom" installation did cater for this in 7.0/7.1, is it still there in 7.2? (I'm still waiting for my 7.2beta3 CDs to arrive) The server installation should be more detailed, like having tickboxes for the following services: -web server (apache) -database server (MySQL/PostgreSQL) -dynamic web content (mod*, php etc / zope) -mail server (postfix/sendmail + imap/pop3) -Windows file+print server (samba) -Mac file+print server (netatalk) -Internet configuration server (DNS/DHCP) -Firewall -IP Masquerading -ftp server -Unix file+print server (NFS/LPD) -terminal server (telnet/ssh) -proxy server -Remote administration (webmin) (more ?) This could even be done with the "normal" and "development" choices -Office (abi gnumeric) -Graphics (gimp etc) -Multimedia (xmms and friends) -Email After selecting the combination of these services/features, one might want to go on to a simple configuration screen for each one. For example, the "Windows File and Print" could have a screen that sets up workgroup name, joins an NT domain or configures a PDC, shares printers. If these "screens" are done well enough, and in a modular fashion, they could be built into DrakConf (and eventually replace linuxconf!!). You should look into the perl scripts that come with webmin. I think they could be used as a backend (as they currently are to the web interface) to a set of Mandrake front-ends. I really hate the amount of wasted effort in linux/oss software. There are so many projects that do similar things, yet aren't anywhere near where they should be. For this reason, I would hope that Mandrake rather support the development of webmin, for example, and make it's own cool (but ncurses also for us CLI people) frontends to webmins perl scripts. OK. Now I've given enough ideas to you mandrake to qualify for either shares when you guys IPO, or for a job when I'm finished studying (although I don't know what you would do with a mechanical engineer with lots of linux/samba/NT/html/Matlab experience), whichever happens first! Buchan -- |--------------------------------------------------------------| Buchan Milne Mechanical Engineer, Network Manager Cellphone +27824722231 email mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Centre for Automotive Engineering http://www.cae.co.za South Africas first satellite: http://sunsat.ee.sun.ac.za Control Models http://www.control.co.za |----------------Registered Linux User #182071-----------------|
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