On Fri, Jun 10, 2011 at 10:55:33AM -0400, Lamar Owen wrote:
> On Thursday, June 09, 2011 07:21:29 PM you wrote:
> > The curses based, text compatible system-config-network needs
> > everything a typical desktop or server needs. It lacks some of the
> > foofiness of NetworkManager, but that's both unnecessary and dangerous
> > on a stable desktop or server, as we've seen happen repeatedly for new
> > installations of RHEL based systems over the last 5 years or so.
> 
> Heh.  Why would you want to stick with such an old codebase, Nico?


I think the wrong question was asked and a different wrong question was answered.

One issue is GUI vs TUI.

Gui is okey when you are standing in front of the computer
console and the X11 graphics are working and you have a working monitor
of reasonable size.

If you do not have a working monitor of reasonable size, the GUIs tend to
fail (usually the "OK" buttons are below the bottom of the screen).

If X11 graphics do not work, GUI is no good (no image on monitor,
or monitor complains about out-of-range video settings, etc). (Yes, I can
spend the day fixing X11 graphics, but I have better things to do).

If you are not standing in front of the computer, you have to tunnel
X11 graphics through an ssh tunnel. Okey for a computer in the office
next door, but good luck doing this through a trans-Atlantic
or trans-Pacific link. (You say "use VNC!", well good luck getting
a VNC connection to a computer behind a firewall on the other side
of a VPN connection. Hint - it can be done by tunneling a reverse
connection (server to client) through an ssh tunnel).

On my side, I have the instructions for setting up new computers
written up on a web page. I want to be able to cut-and-paste them
to a command line, so "authconfig --enablenis --nisdomain xxx --update" is cool,
but "run system-config-users, then push these buttons with mouse" is not cool.


-- 
Konstantin Olchanski
Data Acquisition Systems: The Bytes Must Flow!
Email: olchansk-at-triumf-dot-ca
Snail mail: 4004 Wesbrook Mall, TRIUMF, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 2A3, Canada