[96917] in RedHat Linux List
Re: RedHat bugs???
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Willie Twonk)
Fri Oct 30 03:17:07 1998
In-Reply-To: <199810292056.NAA22317@mu.gsnet.com>
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 18:32:14 +1030
Reply-To: email@ace.net.au
From: "Willie Twonk" <email@ace.net.au>
To: redhat-list@redhat.com
Resent-From: redhat-list@redhat.com
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
On 10/29/98, at 2:05 PM, Mike Bridge wrote:
>My point is that it should be readily apparent from the very beginning of
a
>user's relationship with Linux that this isn't the case; all the Linux
>distributions are just as vulnerable as Microsoft to bugs (they just get
>fixed faster). Given the evidence of widespread lack of knowledge about
>this, it should be much more apparent to a newcomer that *although* you
>just "installed" the OS, the installation isn't done: the next step is to
>replace what they just installed with patches from ftp.redhat.com.
>We should never make the assumption that someone should just know
>better, especially if we're trying to attract new people to Linux. This
is the
>kind of condescending attitude that sours potential interest from new
>users.
Perhaps thats where something like AutoRpm should be included and
configured to at least get the important fixes from RH on a regular basis.
>The original writer mentioned that his hacker friend told him that RedHat
>distributions are known to be insecure. I strongly support Red Hat and I
>know from experience there is a great deal of quality in the distribution.
>That's why I don't want to see them acquire a bad reputation.
I have to agree. I feel RH are making big strides on behalf of the Linux
community recently with getting big players eg Intel involved etc. The
Linuxconf type tools are also much appreciated though still unfinished and
rough around the edges.
Until we can shake the image that Linux is for hackers by making it more
"accessible" to people that don't have time to learn all about the
intricasies of text file configurations and giving them useable and
understandable tools then Linux will always remain a doubtful proposition
for a lot of people. Unfortunately those people will be the decision
makers that want to feel comfortable with their PC environment and not
alienated from it.
To this end, we need a serious push to get things like Linuxconf, DotFile
Generator and other tools more developed and incorporated into the base
product in such a way that users can find their way around their own
system. Man pages etc as useful as they are, just don't cut it for most
people. It's only people that work on PCs 24/7 that have time to get in
deep enough to have a decent idea of what they are doing with Linux and
more importantly what it is doing.
A lot can be learned from MS and Win products. Sure, we all know the
product is far from perfect, we can see lots of ways it could be improved,
we don't agree with the monopolistic approach and political brute force
used by MS, but no-one can deny that virtually anyone can be up and running
and doing the things they want to do fairly quickly as opposed to having to
get involved in a steep learning curve just to get to do almost anything at
all.
Perhaps standards need to be set in how people write config files so that a
standard tool to edit/manipulate those files can be achieved. A lot of
the How-To's need to be re-written to show people how to take advantage of
the tools supplied by RedHat. An example here would be the number of times
we see people asking about making connections to their ISP etc, they get
pages of answers like "edit this, edit that, edit the other" when most
likely all they need is to be given a few tips on how to use the GUI
network tool or the newer LinuxConf.
People get told they need to compile this that or the other into the kernel
yet the current RH already has those features complied in etc etc etc.
Anyway, enough of a rant, you get the idea.
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