possible yast porting? was: slashdot on fedora-marketing-list

[Horst H. von Brand]

Steve Barnhart <stb52988 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Well Ok I'd like to some people for their actual dissection of what
> the problems were. I guess I don't work in production environments
> (not that Fedora is even for that??) and didn't realize so many users
> hatrid of YaST. I've always found it pretty simple to use but maybe
> that's just me. At least reasoning was given..hopefully the team can
> atleast add some more system-config-* programs or something.

The underlying problem is that to /really/ be able to configure stuff you
have to understand the syntax and semantics of dozens of different
configuration files. And AI has still a long way to go to understand even
simple ones.

Configuration files change format (if ever so slightly), the configuration
system has to keep pace (rigurously). And then there is the neverending
problem of having to handle systems that (for whatever reason) don't have
all pieces up to date. I.e., mix new and old configurations.

Or they just tweak a few things on the theory that the rest stays the
same. But people /do/ read the original manuals, and google around for
fixes to their problems, most times finding solutions (or full
configurations) for other systems. And then your configurator is left out
in the cold. The "solution" of just synthetizing the configuration anew is
less than optimal, obviously.

Linux/Unix newbies love YaST and such; seasoned admins hate their guts. If
they are managing a mix of machines, even more: They (sort of) impose their
own system on all to keep halfways sane, and the automated configurator
just can't keep up.
-- 
Dr. Horst H. von Brand                   User #22616 counter.li.org
Departamento de Informatica                     Fono: +56 32 654431
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