From owner-freebsd-chat Thu Jan 7 17:24:32 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id RAA08776 for freebsd-chat-outgoing; Thu, 7 Jan 1999 17:24:32 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from smarter.than.nu (thought.calbbs.com [207.71.213.16]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id RAA08771 for ; Thu, 7 Jan 1999 17:24:30 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from brian@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by smarter.than.nu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id RAA35461 for ; Thu, 7 Jan 1999 17:23:59 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from brian@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU) Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1999 17:23:59 -0800 (PST) From: "Brian W. Buchanan" X-Sender: brian@smarter.than.nu To: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: A GUI administration tool for FreeBSD In-Reply-To: <4.1.19990107200536.00a21470@genesis.ispace.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Thu, 7 Jan 1999, Drew Baxter wrote: > A web solution would be just ducky too.. Wonder if you could run it under > the XR6.3 Broadway plugin or not.. I believe there already is a web-based admin thingy in the ports collection under sysutils/webmin. I don't particularly like the idea of using the web to administrate a system for a couple of reasons, though, and in my opinion, an X11 application is the best way to do it if we're looking to make it easy for newbies. (Well, actually, I like text console tools too, but doing it with a GUI is more flexible and more "friendly" in many cases.) My basic goals at this point are: 1) Provide a unified interface for performing common configuration and administraiton tasks. Try to eliminate the need to hunt down the configuration file necessary to change something, then hunt down the documentation for that config file so you know what format your changes should be in, etc. 2) Have it easily usable for folks new to FreeBSD, link it in with online help (manpages, calling up the handbook, etc. in a web browser, etc.) Now if we just had a reliable way to get XFree86 up and running more-or-less automatically... :) -- Brian Buchanan brian@smarter.than.nu brian@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message