From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon May 17 18:03:16 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3230F16A4CE for ; Mon, 17 May 2004 18:03:16 -0700 (PDT) Received: from sage.thought.org (dsl231-043-140.sea1.dsl.speakeasy.net [216.231.43.140]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 48BEC43D48 for ; Mon, 17 May 2004 18:03:14 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from kline@tao.thought.org) Received: from thought.org (tao [10.0.0.247]) by sage.thought.org (8.12.8p2/8.12.8) with ESMTP id i4I13ATk032083; Mon, 17 May 2004 18:03:11 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from kline@tao.thought.org) Received: from tao.thought.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by thought.org (8.12.9p2/8.11.3) with ESMTP id i4I13A1S050967; Mon, 17 May 2004 18:03:10 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from kline@tao.thought.org) Received: (from kline@localhost) by tao.thought.org (8.12.9p2/8.12.11/Submit) id i4I139Fg050966; Mon, 17 May 2004 18:03:09 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from kline) Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 18:03:09 -0700 From: Gary Kline To: Robert Storey Message-ID: <20040518010309.GA50924@tao.thought.org> References: <006801c43bd4$49362fd0$6501a8c0@yourw92p4bhlzg> <20040518063855.62e20610.y2kbug@ms25.hinet.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20040518063855.62e20610.y2kbug@ms25.hinet.net> X-Organization: Thought Unlimited. Public service Unix since 1986. X-Of_Interest: Observing 17 years of service to the Unix community User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6i X-AntiVirus: checked by AntiVir Milter 1.1-beta; AVE 6.25.0.2; VDF 6.25.0.1 (host: ns1.thought.org) cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: New work on installer? - Checked by AntiVir DEMO version - X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 01:03:16 -0000 On Tue, May 18, 2004 at 06:38:55AM +0800, Robert Storey wrote: > On Mon, 17 May 2004 01:00:37 -0500 > wrote: > > > Has there been any new work on the installer or planned? If not, I would like > > to help... What about graphical? > > If you're looking to improve FreeBSD's user-friendliness, more usefual than a > GUI installer would be a few network setup tools. To get some idea what I'm > talking about, take a look at Slackware's "netconfig" and "adsl-setup" tools. > These aren't GUI, just ncurses scripts, but very easy to use. When I was a FBSD > newbie, one of my most frustrating experiences was having to manually write and > modify /etc/ppp/options and /etc/ppp/ppp.conf. I think a lot of newbies get to > this point, spend a few frustrating days tearing their hair out, and then give > up and go back to Redhat or SUSE. I think we (theBSD's) are losing a lot of serious brain brainpower (and certainly lots of latent high-end talent) by not having a less-headbanging install. I've done it literally dozens of times; I still get flummoxed now and then. What I would do for GUI/curses build/install would have a liberal (much space/slice) as the Default. Then have a lynx or links reader point the new users to a few choice pages if case they want to fine-tune. How much hacking would it take to have our current /stand/sysinstall have a web front end? > > A user-friendly GUI or ncurses script for configuring the new PF firewall would > no doubt win a few converts too. Take a look at Guarddog (a Linux tool for IP > tables) to get some idea. > > Just my 2 cents. > > regards, > Robert > For all its problems, we're doing just-barely well enough. The BSD projects are volunteer; this makes it difficult to ask *too* much. Even I sleep now and then;) As for all the griping in getting a new/improved installer-- no wonder the world is going to hell in a handbasket. If we-geeks can't agree on something this basic, no wonder the imbiciles du monde can't come to a reasonable compromises. 'n' dat's my dime's worth, gary > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" -- Gary Kline kline@thought.org www.thought.org Public service Unix