On Saturday 24 January 2004 21:58, Gytis Raciukaitis wrote:
>
> 5) printer manager. At least for CUPS.
This is allready in kde, also I find http://localhost:631/ to be the best way 
to configure cups. A tool might be possible to assist in some of the settings 
not available through these tools (think access control etc)

> 6) device manager. kernel modules,  module parameters, usb devices.
We would first need to make a manual for doing this, then make a tool that can 
support it. I think it is not a priority right now.

> 7) Date, time, locale configuration.
Timezone and locale I agree (it also needs some research on how to set it 
properly). For date and time there are allready too many tools.

> 8) Font configurator.
Offered by kde at least. I don't know about gnome. It could be improved 
though. A manual though has a greater priority as it would describe how to do 
the things that the tool should do.

> 9) Samba, FTP - include simple file sharing setup and management for
> inexperienced users and most likely for basic start.

For inexperienced users I would reccomend agains ftp as it is unsecure. Samba 
has an excellent configurator in swat.

> 10) Global gentoo specific configuration, interface for rc.conf.
>
> if we could make the whole thing modular and provide good API, the list
> could evolve.

That allmost sounds like linuxconf.

> First of all let's decide what level of tools we need. All the hackers
> outthere will be using good ol' "vi some.conf" method, but for new users
> these tools and the ease of use might be a critical point in choosing
> Gentoo.

For me the tools should be helpfull in daytoday administration of gentoo. I 
don't think we should target newbees. When things are a bit more complicated 
it forces people to think first, and then press the button. This does not 
mean that things should be overcomplicated. It just means that the tool 
should not make decisions for you (like the rest of gentoo tries to avoid 
that). Not making decisions for the user means to me that a configuration 
tool should aim at supporting every configuration possible and especially 
should never ever preclude the use of alternative configuration tools (ever 
tried to configure cups with the redhat tool? they conveniently forgot the 
privileged port option, so you cannot use the tool at all, but they do put 
many warnings against not editing the file)

Paul

-- 
Paul de Vrieze
Gentoo Developer
Mail: pauldv@g.o
Homepage: http://www.devrieze.net