Re: SEUL: Stopping dreams

[Kevin Forge <forgeltd@pop.netaddress.usa.net>]

<a snip so big it wold make ISDN choke> 
> The problem is not the number of cards but the number of people using
> them: at one time about every clone manufacturer shipped his computers
> with Mystiques due to its low cost and good performance.
> 
> Same thing could happen with NVIDIAs or the chip most used the day
> SEUl is relrased?
>
If M$ reads this list then GW2K may be shiping NVIDIAs on all P2 PCs
> 
> PCs are not Suns.  Sun know what video cards are on the computers it
> manufactures so the Sun-made X works first try.  And Sun can make XDM
> the default.
>
This is important.  How about a method where it will only do XDM if
the Video card passes the auto detect properly.  There are a lot of
cards that will work in X at good res/depth but don't auto detect.
If the user has 1 of these cards, and can select it from the 
cascading list ( too many cards for a 1 column scroll IMHO ) then
he is asked if he is CERTAIN it is the correct card ( mention of 
her PCs manual would be nice ... not that anyone will go look ).
Just a thought ... pleas don't batter me for it.
>
> The problem is: We must provide a fall-back until X becomes a thing
> who will work 100% of the time.  Notice than I suggested one (see
> above).  I also consider absurd people who say we should consider
> people not wanting X: these are not our public and 4 meg boxes are no
> longer in production.
> 
True.  SEUL must have the most aggressive "minimum system requirements"
of any Linux.  It must run fast and flawlessly on all PCs that fit these
requirements so My list ( to be modified by everybody since I know not 
everything )
-
VGA or SVGA compatible color display
16 Megs RAM
DX4/100 Lowest CPU
3 Button PC mouse and 101/104 ( or none US/english equivalent ) Keyboard
-
In Detail .. the display is obvious since this is the 2nd all X 
  distribution ( I think RedHat tried that once and failed )
It will Run in less RAM than this but then you will find people 
  comparing an 8 Meg Linux machine to a 32 meg Windows machine,  not 
  fair.  This way people will expect low speed if they do that.
  Also 16 Megs is the point at which Windows can no longer catch Linux
The CPU has a similar argument and could be declared higher.
The Mouse is one thorny issue that none has touched yet.  X and GPM
both use the center botun for important functions.  Problem is most
people have 2 button mice.  I have used an emu3buton setup and it is
not much fun ( pressing 2 buttons at the same time is difficult )
For GPM the way out is easy.  I only do copy and past with it and
so will most SEUs ... once they start going to the CL, so map "paste"
to the right button when a 2 button mouse is configured.
X is more complicated.  and even mapping a key on the keyboard to 
the center button ( is that not possible ? ) would be better than 
emu3buton, but still chunky.
The easy way out ( not really an option for SEUL itself but available
to the people who will sell it ),  Put a 3 button PS/2 mouse with a
9 pin serial adapter in the box.  A Matching Penguin mouse pad would 
be cute :) 
-- 
: "Through the firewall, out the router, down the T1, across the
: backbone, bounced from satellite, Nothing but net."