[PATCH_ES_] New storage methods for partitioning and formatting

[Peter]

On Sat, 18 Nov 2006 09:42:43 +0000, Richard Hughes wrote:

snip...

> I really don't understand your lack of understanding about desktop
> console use - do you actually drop to the shell and type mkfs to floppy
> disks? Or do you have to enter the root password in a GUI app? Or is
> that GUI formatter you use setguid? Yuk.
> 
> 
PMFJI. Yes, that is me! Although I'm old enough to remember using punch
cards, so a $ peter at mars : prompt is hardly daunting! I always format from
a prompt. I don't use KDE, Gnome, Xfce, but do use E and some programs
from Gnome or KDE and ROX. Hal fits in nicely for those programs which
need it.

> Please think about desktop users who don't know shell. You can disable
> as much as you like on gentoo (which is fine BTW, as you'll know what
> you are doing) but please don't say feature X shouldn't be in Y without
> better reasoning than "...just calling system() with the proper
> parameters..."
> 
> 
Tricky balancing act here. Unless hal is integrated into a system and
unless the user does not upgrade dependent modules, hal can be
preconfigured and everything should run smoothly.

But where you will run into problems is when hal is NOT provided in a
distro, and the user (i.e. ME), who is not an abstraction layer guru, must
accept defaults out of the box and then wonder if the security policy is
correct or even usable!

For example, Slackware does not even provide Gnome. So, I was on my own
when I wanted to try 2.16.1 and had to get dbus, hal, avahi, etc. all
running which I did (neither Dropline, freerock or gsb had current
versions -- probably because they can't make everything work yet!). 2.17.2
however, and its requirement for hal >=0.5.8.1 was problematic. Not that
Slackware is on the same level of popularity as other distros which offer
Gnome or hal, just an example of how support issues could get burdensome
should it be left to end users to install and configure hal. I know I
would not be up to it!

-- 
Peter