[luau] Linuxconf's replacement in RH 7.3?

[Warren Togami]

Jeff Mings wrote:
> I just checked a Rawhide mirror and noticed that linuxconf is still not 
> there.  Anyone know if a unified cli-mode configuration tool has been 
> selected to replace Linuxconf in RH 7.3?  We discussed this previously, 
> but I keep hoping that something will show up for the command line.
> 
> -Jeff
>

There is none.  This is the single greatest thing that angers me about 
Red Hat's latest distro.  The improvements in server services and 
choices (via alternatives) in RH 7.3 make it better than ever, but Red 
Hat seems to refuse to acknowledge that their configuration tools as a 
whole are terrible.

* There is no consistency between the CLI and GUI tools
* The GUI tools themselves are fairly good, but some have no viable 
equivalents in CLI... like user manager and networking.
* The single greatest annoyance of the CLI tools are the network config 
tools.  There is currently no way of setting a secondary DNS, and the 
only way to configure IP aliases or interfaces other than eth0 is to 
know about a hidden command line option for "netconfig".  You can't 
choose or edit the network interface kernel driver either.
* Yes I am aware of the configuration files, but this is too much to 
expect from the average administrator that Red Hat hopes that they rely 
entirely on up2date to keep maintain their servers.  Requiring them to 
edit config files also scares the heck out of potential new administrators.
* While the CLI "setup" options are fairly well laid out, the equivalent 
menus in GUI are somewhat haphazardly thrown together.  As a result, the 
correct tool that you are looking for is somewhat difficult to find.  I 
am talking about within both KDE and to a lesser degree Gnome.


What Red Hat really needs is something similar to DrakConf of the latest 
Mandrake release.  THAT is what I feel is a powerful configuration 
framework for several reasons.

* Consistent interface and options between GUI and CLI.  All options 
that exist in GUI also exist in CLI.
* All options in once place, put into mostly reasonable categories. 
Within DrakConf it is NOT difficult to find what you're looking for, 
unlike Red Hat's configurators within KDE and to a lesser degree Gnome.
* /var/log/explanations logs all changes made by DrakConf.  This is not 
only useful to know about changes, but very beneficial for 
administrators in learning the *real* way of configuring their systems.


While I have a tremendous respect for Red Hat and I use exclusively Red 
Hat servers and desktops, I have great worries about the ease of use, 
functionality and organization of their configuration tools.  I do hope 
that they follow the good example of DrakConf and address these issues 
in near future for Red Hat 8.0.

Heck, I'm willing to help code such a project if necessary.  I feel it 
is that important, because it is one of the current greatest weaknesses 
of the Red Hat distro.

Warren Togami
warren at togami.com