[805] in athena10
Re: Changes to debathena-gdm-config
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jonathan Reed)
Fri Jan 9 14:24:53 2009
Cc: Bill Cattey <wdc@mit.edu>, Geoffrey Thomas <geofft@mit.edu>,
athena10@mit.edu
Message-Id: <2C5DD76A-4A85-4CD3-AC56-82C1449F5EAD@mit.edu>
From: Jonathan Reed <jdreed@MIT.EDU>
To: Anders Kaseorg <andersk@mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.DEB.2.00.0901081453500.11108@vinegar-pot.mit.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252; format=flowed; delsp=yes
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v919.2)
Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 14:23:54 -0500
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
>
> After we do that, the extra session options are “merely
> superfluous”. Again, I don’t think we should be in the business of
> deleting “superfluous” functionality from the upstream
> distribution. And if somebody wants to install, for example, KDE on
> their private Athena workstation, we should not stop them.
I wonder if we're all on the same page here. I can't speak for Bill,
but I'm primarily concerned with -workstation and -cluster. It is
indeed our job to remove some functionality from -cluster machines.
I'm concerned with -workstation, because a lot of people who have
private Athena workstations now are going to end up with debathena-
workstation. The majority of these people want it to "just work" and
are likely to be very confused by these new and poorly named items
under "Login Options".
As Bill pointed out, "Secure Remote Connection" is ~useless and I
could see users being easily confused by this. Furthermore, if I
choose "Secure Remote Connection", gdm asks me if I want to make it
the default, and if I just hit enter, it will make it the default.
That's unfortunate behavior.
For -cluster machines, I believe quite strongly (and would go so far
as to put my foot down, if indeed my foot has any power) that users
should see the following under "Login Options":
"Normal" (or "Athena" or "GNOME")
"Ignore customizations" ("Failsafe GNOME", assuming that actually
works now)
"Terminal only" (or "Failsafe Terminal")
I will also advocate strongly for debathena-workstation being similar,
but am willing to compromise on that. Really though, "Secure Remote
Connection" needs to go away, or at least fail in a more graceful
manner than kicking the user back to gdm.
I understand the argument for not removing functionality, but what we
have now will make support folks miserable.
-Jon
