From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Apr 24 17:30:03 2013 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [8.8.178.115]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 528A59DF for ; Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:30:03 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from justin.muniz@maine.edu) Received: from mail-la0-x22d.google.com (mail-la0-x22d.google.com [IPv6:2a00:1450:4010:c03::22d]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CFDB6121C for ; Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:30:02 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail-la0-f45.google.com with SMTP id em20so720311lab.18 for ; Wed, 24 Apr 2013 10:30:01 -0700 (PDT) X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=google.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:x-received:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id :subject:from:to:content-type:x-gm-message-state; bh=Dz+1hTRE/vo6iQWemILkbjl0yeaHGMTqJ9J7y+vjOu4=; b=n8CADVcSIiEvdk7ZC3wr7GRB6A5UOrWn+P8J7gJR0qzPlJIbakIqmcj4z11qObHrkj 9nfrIDYlryBu889NQvyA9VtkxHJahkDNGWMHTICD9WU4u4WOfop4jrkt0ycSLMnm77H0 eci1WaSvvxmwdY1nf/k+9QpV9D/2Wv9HiY39E4leOWNMN05w9g7PtRG5SmmUuFli2V0X q1br2fj/PqLIbA9lpiJIVQjOPbk4aaaG3OoREkelDkktfZR1gHqx9APqla+IvInfFxhN yCspFwTIbVFRIhfIeENxYJpQeCiZ93zDZCvUFOz7e6aKAyY6YoswYC93MezkLJUMUPjq /lfQ== MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Received: by 10.152.18.164 with SMTP id x4mr18568383lad.38.1366824601724; Wed, 24 Apr 2013 10:30:01 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.112.135.229 with HTTP; Wed, 24 Apr 2013 10:30:01 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: References: <60A4F968-60A4-4C71-AD53-BA1BC6CBAB5F@longcount.org> Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:30:01 -0400 Message-ID: Subject: Re: Fwd: GSOC: Qt front-ends From: Justin Edward Muniz To: Chris Rees , freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Gm-Message-State: ALoCoQlbz8FquOy74Wfsqyb72RDLLuUDEeKhLxBcyxrX4x6Ih0vOY9QQT45X33mvIIvy38ve4+WG Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.14 X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:30:03 -0000 > > Our kernel is actually very easy to configure, so I'm not convinced that > it's needed; you may be thinking of Linux's menuconfig, but I think that is > because of the complexity. > > Chris > While configuring the kernel may be trivial to someone who understands the process and their systems needs, I am thinking of a software tool that goes beyond the scope of the occasional generating of a kernel configuration file. Imagine that you have a number of systems and you want to run kernels that are lighter weight than the generic kernel but each system has its own individual needs. A GUI could help manage a large number of custom kernels, and provide access to convenient access to features such as specifying a kernel to load on the next boot only for testing. You could even configure the custom kernel profiles to be built from separate source directories. That is not to say of course that everyone else using x11 couldn't benefit from it as well. The application could help avoid compatibility issues during kernel installation by comparing the kernel's version to the version of world. Some helpful aids would be visual categorization of options as well as option descriptions, caveats, and hyperlinks to more in depth information. As for its place in Google Summer of Code, you could be right, it may not be enough to dedicate such resources. I know however that I would use it, maybe others would as well? Thank you for your advice once again Chris! What do you think about the other utilities? Justin Muniz