Desktop issues discussion proposal

[Daniel Reed]

On 2004-04-23T15:18-0400, seth vidal wrote:
) On Fri, 2004-04-23 at 15:04, Havoc Pennington wrote:
) > If we can't figure out how to manage laptops (require manual
) > config/admin of them) then it's a big problem, since half of corporate
) > desktops are laptops.
) show me any other operating system that doesn't have manual
) administration of configuration settings (system-wide) be able to be
) done from a gui console?

http://www.slackware.org/ (everything is done from a traditional console)


However, I think you two may be talking past each other. Our goal is not to
limit the power of our users, but rather to eliminate the need for their
involvement in this task. (In "require manual config," emphasis is on
"require.")

At worst, we would be enabling individual users' disempowerment by forces in
network support. ("Do not reconfigure your machine or face the wrath of
hostmaster!")

If done well, however, the machines' configuration (automatically determined
and/or mass managed) would be robust enough to keep most users from ever
worrying about using a "manual override." If the network support staff do
not see frequent, repeated problems from the use of manual override, they
should not need to issue any mandates about its use.

-- 
Daniel Reed <n at ml.org>	http://people.redhat.com/djr/