RE: Newbie Idea

["Sharp, Lee" <Lee@PeakUSA.com>]

>I hope I didn't sound like "the elite", ugh. Actually, end users really
>have an eye for things that experienced users overlook. This "package
>selection" dilemma is a good example. Thinking about it more deeply, I am
>starting to feel like the "uninformed" were right all along. But coming up
>with a solution that will work is something of a challenge.

   I think part of that is fear.
"Oh-My-God-Look-At-All-These-Choices-And-If-I-Don't-Install-Them-Now-I-W
on't-Know-How-Later!"  But after using it, the RedHat package manager is
VERY easy.  We need to make sure people know that adding and removing
and fixing bad choices is easy. :-)

>I think I remember being able to find the F1-package descriptions as a
>newbie, but some of the packages ( eg "UUCP", "bind", "NIS"   ) were just
>beyond my comprehension at the time, so I just selected everything. 

   Package selection is a mess! Someone mentioned how Windows does it
multi-level.  We need something like that.  An "editors" section that
has vi, pico, joe, X Emacs...  Being an illiterate (l)user, I have no
clue how this would be done. :-)  All I can do it write the AutoDocs to
make it less fearsome.

>one thing we can do ( I can make a start ) is write some docs about the
>"groups" of packages, what those groups mean, and who might want to use
>which groups of packages. 
>
>The group descriptions are a little confusing in places ( I am still a
>little confused by the meaning of "X windows with emacs". I guess it
>means the athena build of emacs ... )

   I will work on it.  This means I have to install it a lot more. :-)
As a side...  The "canned" installs will not work for a duel boot!  We
need some way to fix this, because the user most likely to need it, is
also most likely to want to keep Windows somewhere.  Any ideas?

   As an unrelated question, I found out that "insmod tlan duplex=2" has
to be run on each reboot.  <In case you wondered why snow was down last
night.  Ooops...>  As the tlan is used in a lot of Compaq systems, I am
going to address it in the AutoDocs.  What is the "proper" way to fix
it.  Add a line to inet.d, or is there a better place?
   I am also addressing the "linear" flag in LILO.  There are a lot of
LBA machines out there, and a screen with just "LI" is damned
frustrating. :-)

			Lee