Date: Tue, 2 Jan 1996 15:59:18 +0100 (MET) From: borjam@we.lc.ehu.es (Borja Marcos) To: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: X for install (was: Re: syscons driver) Message-ID: <9601021450.AA03678@sol.we.lc.ehu.es>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Just my opinion about (in fact against) graphical installation programs, There are tasks for which a GUI is suitable and useful, such as user-oriented applications, but there is a trend today towards using GUIs for everything. Look at those new OS/s such as OS/2 or Windows NT, in which there is no clear distinction between the OS and the window system. (For example, in OS/2, the so called session manager, which is used by TCP/IP to allow incoming telnet connections to work, is part of PM. If you disable the window system, something desirable in the type of systems I design, you loose the remote access). I think that a robust and confortable installation program can be written for a text-only display (I found the FreeBSD 2.0.5 install program easy to use) and writing it for X wouldn't add anything but adhering to the current fashion, and making the program need more resources. The situation can be worse in the case of PCs. If the installation and configuration programs become graphical programs, you can have a really hard day if you change the graphics card in your machine and need to recofigure something. I understand that with XFree it wouldn't be so hard, as the SVGA server recognizes lots of cards, but anyway it can complicate things. An installation program must be something easy to run, and must be runnable from _any_ access method to the system. I mean, it can be a problem for some people if you cannot simply telnet a FreeBSD system or conect through an async modem and use an installation program, but need a TCP/IP to run X on the remote machine. This error has been made by OS/s such as OS/2. I'm sure there are other priorities for enhancing the system that the redundant work of making new graphical installation programs and (I hope so if finally the graphical programs are written) maintaining the text-only versions. (Wiping the text-only versions would be a serious error). I have been developing (and still am) complex systems for OS/2 and I have had to travel a lot because I couldn't configure some things through a modem, a trivial task with a serious OS. Borja. -- ******************************************************************* Borja Marcos | Preferred: borjam@we.lc.ehu.es Alangoeta, 11, 1. izq. | Others: borjamar@mx.sarenet.es 48990 - Algorta (Vizcaya) | 100015.3502@compuserve.com SPAIN | CIS: 100015,3502 ****************************************************************** (c)1995 by the author. This message cannot be transferred to the Microsoft(tm) Network.
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?9601021450.AA03678>