"GUI gadgets", was: Fedora meeting Mono Half-Way

[Ivan Gyurdiev]

> As a maintainer of some of those "GUI gadgets"(*) I'd really like to
> know what problems you have with them. It's not as if they were
> faultless, but if there's something -- bugs or missing functionality --
> which disturbs you, say what it is (and please put them into Bugzilla).
> Badmouthing these tools in general ain't gonna help.
>
> (*): system-config-date, system-config-nfs, system-config-samba,
> system-config-services, system-config-users
>   
In the past I have quite often run into python tracebacks (for invalid 
code), indicating the utilities had not been run through a checker. I 
think there's a language issue involved here, since this would not 
happen in a compiled language. However, it would not be fair to 
criticize now, since they seem to work. The point is that maybe other 
users have experienced the same, leading to the parent's comment.

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However, since you bring up bugs... I tried system-config-user, and it says:

"The user database cannot be read. This problem is most likely caused by 
a mismatch in /etc/passwd, and /etc/shadow. This program will exit now".

I have no idea whether or not there's a mismatch in /etc/passwd and 
shadow, but I know that my computer seems to work just fine regardless 
of any such problems, and the tool should deal with it, and let me edit 
my users...
----
I also see that system-config-nfs cuts off the two entry boxes on the 
right when "Server Setting" is selected - the dialog is too small, and 
you have to resize it manually.

---
Also, usability could be improved here, and there. A trivial example is 
a bug I filed in January (12 months ago):
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=145068.

A much more serious problem is system-config-packages.
Every time I open it it greets me with a friendly message:
"/media/cdrecorder1" is not a valid installation source.
I don't think I've ever seen this app work - it's been that way for at 
least 2 years.
...