Add/Remove Software Utility

[Rick Stuart]

Original Post: Re: Fedora usability : a new project?

This is not an issue for me after Rahul and David's guidance, but I did 
have a few minor comments.
>
> Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2006 11:45:30 +0530
> From: Rahul <sundaram at redhat.com>
>
>   
>> Rick Stuart wrote:
>> I really like YUM, but I REALLY think that it sucks to explain it to 
>> users who are new to Linux.
>>     
>
> Why? It has a consistent command line interface and it is no worse than 
> any other command tool that I know of.
>
> http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/yum/
>
>
>
>   
Like I said, I like the CLI.  The user community I work with, 
(corporately and around my neighborhood) does not do CLI.  RTFM is not 
an answer for them.

   Package manager is nice, but then there is

> > that pesky root password requirement....."So, I'll just log in as root 
> > so I don't have to type that password!"  It is miserably slow.    Does 
> > it even connect to YUM? 
>   

Yes, It uses yum.


  I am not seeing all the available packages I

> > can see with 'yum list available'.  If that's not the right tool, then 
> > why is it on the menu under 'Add/Remove software'?  Don't make me say 
> > the U-word.
>   

Click the big "List" button.


First, I will say that I did take another look at the package manager 
and yes it does list all installed and available apps from all my 
repos.  The search tool works just like "yum list | grep [whatever]" 
which is nice.   The 'Big List Button" generates a list that I could see 
might be imposing to a user, but if you have the viewpoint that users 
should not be installing software (I agree in a corporate environment) 
then who cares, right?
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2006 09:27:23 +0200
> From: David Nielsen <david at lovesunix.net>
>
>   
> You should always provide some kind of authication when installing 
> programs globally, not doing so is inviting all kinds of security issues. 
>   
Agreed.  If I have set a policy that this user can install software, 
then challenge him for his password, not Root's and, for the corporate 
controls, log the activity.
> The software manager doesn't seem slow to me, however the UI locks up 
> due to it not being threaded - Katz' has strong arguments against adding 
> that kind of complexity to the code. I think we might need to make him 
> compromise a bit to make the UI not appear like it died - users tend to not
> like that behavior, myself included.
>
> Ubuntu has the basically same setup was we do. 
>   
> - David Nielsen
>   
All told, after looking at it again, I have no problem with pointing 
users at the package manger except that I REALLY don't want them using 
the root password.  Perhaps when PolicyKit can help there, but I think 
the user should be challenged for his password rather than just get in 
to package manager.

It is slow, but I compared it to Windows' Add/Remove and it is really no 
worse.


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