Re: SEUL: Re: What's the diff to SEUL ? (fwd)

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

> 
> On Fri, 16 Jan 1998, Erik Walthinsen wrote:
> 
> > As has been pointed out by someone else, KDE and Qt seem to be very 
> > non-reentrant.  If one part of KDE freezes, the entire system goes with it.  
> > Since all your apps are dependent on one component (which sounds from the 
> > description to be an actual process), if it goes away, you're hosed.  If 
> > that's your definition of a "complete desktop", gimme my vi back!
> 
> My choice would be for fvwm or fvwm2 and goodstuf or fvwm-buttons.  These
> are well documented, easy to auto-add menus items to, and a user can pick
> up the documentation for custom configuration rather quickly.  

I must agree. The mythical "complete desktop" is not even desirable.
For those people who do everything at the command line, going through
a filemanager is a pain they don't want. For those who use a word processor
navigating through ten thousand files is also a pain.

> 
> I think the default desktop should be kept simple yet extensable.

I see a fvwm window manager, with something in the install script to
allow you to put the application you want into the system.fvwmrc if you
want.

> 
> I even recently saw a GUI interface for ipfwadm in c.o.l.a.

Where is this?

> 
> What functions are most needed?  It would help me if I know exactly what
> functionality is needed so I could start comparing apps and looking for
> things.

After taking an informal survey of what applications want to be run, I have
concluded that the people interested are people who want a unix workstation,
with a pre-configured X-windows system, and a suite of office 
applications (word processor, spreadsheet, etc ...) and the ability to add
there own specialized applications (scientific, artistic, development).

What I see as the seul distribution is as follows:
	The base system - enough to boot into vga Xserver and pop up a nice
	gui to setup the real Xserver. I would suggest a tktcl script that
	runs at install time and asks the correct questions to setup your
	card and monitor in the XF85Config..

	A simple application suit. Remember the accessories folder in win3.1?

	Distributions of prefered applications that do automatic installs.
	This means that after installing an icon is added to a toolbar
	representing the application, or a menu item at the root menu.
	All these distributions should be optional. If I don't intend to 
	do geographic assessments of GIS data, I should not install that
	application.

	Internet Connectivity. This includes dial-up installs and 
	ethernet installs.

	Some people expressed interest in "extension" binding. You know that
	thing that when you click on x.doc in windows word for windows is
	launched with x.doc.



For practical purposes there other problems to contend with - repartition
hard drives, adding swap space ( I believe a swap file is easier because
it doesn't need multiple partitions and can be resized if necessary later).

B.T.