**************************************** * LUG meet on 12 Jan. 2003 @ VJTI ****************************************
On Wed, 8 Jan 2003, Nikhil Joshi wrote: > 1. Better hardware support: > > Let the multimedia k/b, the jazzy 5 button > mouse, the fundoo steering wheel work under Linux. True, but this needs to come from the hardware vendor's side. There's only so much that can be done by reverse engineering. At the very least they need to release the specs for their hardware. Of course, with the advent of software modems and software sound cards, there is not hardware to release the specs of. > 2. Less dependence on root: > > 2.1 > > Lets say me and my brother use different ISPs and we would not like > to share passwords. How to do that ? I believe there is no viable > solution This may be possible. All that is needed is separate configuration files for wvdial. wvdial can run through consolehelper so that it doesn't require root priviledges. Even if a solution for wvdial to use different conf files doesn't exist, I believe it would be trivial to add support (I think check the uid of the calling process). I already have wvdial running through consolehelper. Another thing required is to get rp3 to recognise wvdial's existing configuration and *not blow it away*. > 2.2 > > My family members would like to install the apps they downloaded from > the net (rpm files). How to ensure that they can install the stuff? > (sudo ? but they can accidently uninstall some progs that I installed > How to prevent that?) Well, allowing anyone to install software is a security hole - if they can install software system-wide. What can be allowed is to change the install prefix: eg. configure --prefix=/home/philip/usr that will configure and install the software in my home directory. rpm provides a relocate option (--prefix=NEWPATH) to install software in a different directory. This may not always work (ie, some programs have file paths hard coded in the binary). > 2.3 > > My system is badly shut and for fsck the shell script asks for the root > password. But I'm (the root)not available. The system wont proceed > without fsck. What to do now? Note: even with ext3, if the fs is in > real bad shape RHL *asks* for root password. This is so because it is assumed that a regular user would not know when to say yes and when to say no when fsck prompts them. If you just had to say yes all the time, then fsck -y would work. The fact that it drops you to a shell means that it won't work or is terribly unsafe. > 3. Leaner Desktop Environments > > Personal experience: GNOME/KDE, supposedly default desktop environs are > slow (thats an understatement) on Pentium 166/32MB RAM. IMHO Windows GUI is > leaner and more intuitive than KDE,GNOME (Caveat: I do not use Windows) ok, we'd have to look at comparable stuff. I used Gnome and KDE that came with RH6.0 on a pentium 133 - and it was fast. I used windows 95 and windows 98 too. they were comparable. Caveat: I had a lot of RAM. later versions of windows would not work on that machine. later versions of Redhat would. > 4. Better Software support bharghav has already answered this point. btw, something like the vsnl CD... maybe someone should write something in python/gtk and pass it on to vsnl. they might consider adding it to the CD. > 5. More Games please Unfortunately, Loki closed down. > 6. Better/Easier Development environment > > OK C may be good for experienced programmers. But I've seen many novice > people write good sofware with VB. It is easy (period) novices, yes... good? not so sure. You'd have to be very clear in your concepts of structured programming to write good code in VB. VB makes it very easy to write code, it also makes it very easy to write crappy code (and people complain about perl!). The fact that it's easy to write code that works means too many people without any idea or interest in programming style will take it up. Yes, the development environment of VB is very good, and makes it easier to develop... the language... I'm not so sure (note: I've been programming in VB since 1995 and in BASIC since 1985). Python - yes...very good. > 7. The (regulary) irregular crashes > > Please.. make some feature so that Linux crashes sometimes. It kinda gives > you that deja-vu feeling. ah... those were the days :) nah... just use the BSOD screensaver ;) ciao... and maybe take up some of these projects. Philip -- _______________________________________________ http://mm.ilug-bom.org.in/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
