* Tao Chen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [2005-08-02 19:16]: > On 8/2/05, Stephen Hahn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > One of the areas we've been working on after Solaris 10 has been > > labelled "approachability"--a rather vague term for "eliminating > > both annoying and substantial gaps in the operating system". Areas > > we've been investigating include simplifying complex operations, like > > rich networking configurations and service failure diagnosis, but > > also include irritations for administrators, developers, and users > > new to Solaris. > > > Sounds like a perfect place for less-experienced Solaris users to share our > growing pains. > > [Example of approachability issues with install server set up elided.] > > Is this a good example of what can be posted to "approachability" list?
Yes. Installation is seen as one of the components most in need of approachability reengineering, and is (not that you need care) a group within the larger Approachability/KISS organization within the Solaris group. For the purposes of the community, however, your next point is critical: > I may be wrong, maybe there's a good techincal reason why it can't be > automated. However, as an user and someone who wants to recommend the > OS to others, I'd like to have the opportunity to raise my concern, > even if I already get the job done, but want to see the job becoming > easier for others in the future. Standard operations that do not respect the operator's time are not approachable. That is, designing such that typical operations are automatic or otherwise economic is a key aspect of approachability. > I feel this kind of 'complain' may not be well-received by the > opensolaris-discuss list, where 'more important' issues are discussed, > so maybe it's a good idea to have a separate list. > > Hope I am not too off from the idea of your proposal. > > Oh BTW, how do you define the difference between "approachability" and > "usability"? Depending on one's point of view, each might be expressible as a subset of the other. I think that at this point in OpenSolaris, approachability is about eliminating the need for configuration in the majority of cases. Services, although disabled for security purposes, come with effective default configurations if they are enabled.* Configuration, where needed, is keyed off networked sources where available, or generated from a guided set of questions--but as few as possible. If you like, approachability can be considered simpler than usability: it's about being complete in delivering the default solution one normally constructs about a particular feature. Usability is often about identifying necessary concepts and making them consistent across a range of features: that's some combination of synthesis and art. - Stephen * In case you ever wondered why smf(5) separated enabled/disabled intent from configuration presence/absence, here's one of the abstract reasons. -- Stephen Hahn, PhD Solaris Kernel Development, Sun Microsystems [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://blogs.sun.com/sch/ _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list [email protected]
