GUI Conf files [was Re: [PLUG] Linux From Scratch (LFS) anyone]

[Carla Schroder]

On Wednesday 29 October 2003 3:32 am, Zot O'Connor wrote:
> On Tue, 2003-10-28 at 20:08, Carla Schroder wrote:
> > On Tuesday 28 October 2003 7:50 pm, AthlonRob wrote:
> >
> >
> > This is a chronic problem with Red Hat and Mandrake, and probably other
> > distributions too. Their GUI configs are not front-ends for the text
> > config files, but interact with the system in their own weird way. In my
> > excellent opinion, this is way lame.
>
> Try to write a GUI that can read the linux conf files and then write
> back to them.

Webmin does this just fine. It is a Perl interface to the config files. You 
can edit the files directly, and Webmin does not get confused.

>
> When you are done, let me edit the conf files for 5 minutes(*).  I bet
> you your app will not work (i.e. the conf file will be wrong).

Oh, I should trust you on a bet?  :)

<snip>
>
> Now I LOVE GUI config programs.  Why?  For *other* people.  I feel like
> an idiot that I do not know how to add modems, or ISPs, or alternative
> numbers to friend's/client's/my system without editing 4 or 5 files (or
> running pppd from a terminal windows).  Make Linux sound oh so powerful
> when I say "Of course you can dial to earthlink, all you need to do is
> type "vi ......"  Even windows 98 has the pattern down fairly well.

I like GUIs too. And I like being able to mix n match. There is no doubt 
setting up PPP from the command line is not for the faint of heart. 
BTW, I don't think you've set up a modem in windows for awhile...even in XP, 
their interface still sucks. It's not a straightforward, fill-in-the-blanks 
setup, but you have know which seekrit menus to dig up. Same for 
Ethernet. KPPP is way better.

> Now I LOVE GUI config programs.  Why?  For *other* people. 

I don't care if it works for "Joe and Tricia Sixpack". Joe and Tricia can't 
set up any kind of networking on windoze, or configure Zone Alarm, or set 
file permissions, or any basic admin task.  Joe and Tricia call people like 
me to set things up, so they can create documents and spreadsheets and 
diagrams and such, and not worry about system administration things. Even the 
best GUI is not telepathic, they still need to know what to do.

-- 
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Carla Schroder
www.tuxcomputing.com
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