Re: SEUL: Is it too soon for me to comment? (fwd)

["Star's End" <starsend@interlog.com>]

> > 
> IMHO, SEUL has a big problem right now.  It's talk.  Everyone's talking,
> but no one's actually DOING anything.  Beyond the creation of a few lists,
> we are where we where three months ago.  NOTHING has been done, nor has
> ANYTHING actually been sorted out.  NO plans have been made, nothing.  All
> we've been doing so far is sitting and nattering away that something
> should be done.  Is someone going to do something, or should SEUL just rot
> into nothingness?  Don't like something about the configuration or
> installation of a program?  Then fix it!  Then, send us a copy of the fix.
> Then all these fixes get put together with a bit of glue, and voila!  A
> distribution!

This is hitting the nail on the head.
If you want to get somewhere you have to start doing something.

Is there a CVS repository for SEUL, who is in charge of it?
Can I download the pieces of SEUL that are available today.

If you continue to talk about this nothing gets done. I have read many
things about design goals, and what we don't like, but I have yet to see
a single line of code.

You are never going to get anything right the first time, so don't bother
worrying about it. Get something done. And when you have a system that works,
fix the problems that arise.

Is there a minimal SEUL distribution anywhere. Take redhat version whaterver
strip out all the frills, create an rpm that someone can download.

All it need to do is install and boot up. A shell and some command line
tools would be nice.

From here we add things. The Xwindows package, with its configuration utils.
What next. Are we trageting developers. Yes a development environment. 
Do we want networking. Yes A networking package.

Once we have the basics we can start screaming what else do we want.

> 
> Now, an IMPORTANT issue(if not THE most important) is advertising.
> Advertisements are EXPENSIVE.  It costs through the nose for a booth at
> COMDEX.  Now, what can we do to solve this problem?  I propose we create
> the Linux Consortium, devoted to furthering Linux.  And you charge

Such a consortium exists. I think its even called that.

> funds go toward advertising Linux.  A small newsletter could be
> maintained, giving the latest Linux news, etc.  If a good advertising

The linux gazette, and the linux journal is what you are talking about here.

> campaign where set up, Linux as a whole would reap INTENSE benefits.  Sell it
> as THE replacement for NT.  NT is buggy, expensive, slow and has HUGE

A real world IT manager wants a tech support person to call to. If you
want to sell linux to the real world, you set up a system of linux 
certification. Anyway there are companies out there that do provide tech
support for linux. Redhat is one of them.

> resource requirements.  Linux is stable, cheap, fast and can be fit in
> 640k of RAM.(Okay, we're talking REALLY stripped-down system, but hey,
> what car company didn't tear the car down in the '70s for testing
> mileage?).  We can make the point to companies that they have a choice:
> Linux or NT for their network server.  Linux costs them $49, a compareable
> NT system would cost over $2,000.  Support and documentation abounds.

Support for linux does not abound. There is no 24 hour phone number to call
to find out why xanim doesn't play avi files. If the it manager has problems
with MSoffice on NT he calls microsoft. If I have a problem with staroffice
on Redhat who do I call?

> Now, what company could pass up a deal like that?  TTYL!
> 

Quite a few.

B.T.