-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Leon Brooks wrote: > I ran across this review of The Borg's latest offering: >
[...] > With a little glow of vicarious pride, I noted that Mandrake ship at > least two of every major app featured in SBS 2003 Premium Edition. (-: > > NOw, the purpose of this message: yes, it's a bad idea to have a newbie > and/or complete incompetent administering a system, but given that it > will happen anyway, would it not be a good idea to make sure that it > happens well? > Agree. It's almost impossible not to get Windows 2003 Server configured (unless you don't happen to have the CD handly when you're running the Active Directory Wizard and it doesn't install DNS for you so you have to setup the forward and reverse DNS zones manually). > What they seem to have done here is added a setup wizard and drawn out a > few common tasks from their configuration tools into a nicer, simpler > set of the "most wanted" configuration options. Think of the first-time > wizard thingy that Mandrake throws at you when you log into a new > account (via *DM) for the first time, and roll MCC and the installer > into that. > Actually, it is a very nice interface, which allows you to see the "Server roles" that your server is configured for, with links to the config tools for each one, plus buttons to add more server roles, plus a search box (which starts up their "Help Center" which is very comprehensive). > The simplest way of offering the same functionality on Mandrake would be > to include a welcome page (and desktop icon) for root that included a > clear and obvious option (icon) labelled something like "Setup Guide" > which is a page in /usr/share/doc somewhere with very simple decision > tree in it, perhaps something like this (only with the terms even less > "jargonny"): > I don't agree that we should be encouraging users to log in to a desktop as root ... But maybe the first user that logs in should be assumed to be the "admin"? > Start Here > Would you like to copy the installation media to disk? Would you like to setup a software repository for this and other machines, and/or a deployment server? (PXE/DHCP the whole bang shoot). > Would you like to automatically fetch software updates? > Are you setting up a Server? > Is it to be an Internet gateway/firewall as well? > Will it masquerade/NAT for local machines? > Do any local services need to be visible from Internet? > [etc] > ...a Web Server? > ...a File Server? > ...a Web Proxy? > ...to host a complete Internet domain? > ...to host a supercomputing cluster? > ...[etc] > Are you setting up a Workstation? > Is it for home use? > ...office use? > ...to be an Internet kiosk? > ...[etc] > Click here to read the latest version of this document from > Mandrake's web server. > > This Setup Guide would need to be clearly and explicitly referenced by > the installer and documentation, for example: > > +--------------------------- > | Finished installation > | > | If you would like simple instructions to set everything up > | and get the best out of your new Mandrake system, login as > | the root user and click on the Setup Guide. > | > Agree. > The basic idea is that Joe or Jane Random Schmuck should be able, armed > only with mouse and keyboard, to configure up a Mandrake machine OOTB > reasonably securely to be an effective server and/or workstation. > > At each step, the consequences of each choice should be outlined (e.g. > "If you leave this setting at the default (off), your database will be > more secure but will not be accessible from other computers or even > from local programs which expect to talk to the database over a > network"). > > Is there a neat way of doing this (presumably in SGML) so that > translations of it all stay in sync? I am not sure about the tool itself, but IMHO we need to consider getting *really* *excellent* documentation available, all in one place, either Yelp (for GNOME users) or KHelpcenter. Since they both support scrollkeeper, it may be feasible this way, but at present the search capabilities are not good enough. I haven't managed to get db2omf to convert docbook to an omf file that scrollkeeper will validate yet (I tried with the rpm-howto). I will try with some others, such as the samba howto collection. BTW, before there is a tool for setting up the entire server, we need to have tools for some of the individual pieces. For example, the Active Directory wizard in Win2k/Win2k3 sets up the following (in linux equivalents): - -primary DNS for forward and revers lookups, with client updates - -DHCP server - -OpenLDAP master (with kerberos-style service records) - -Kerberos master (with kerberos-style service records) - -Samba domain controller I have done some testing against win2k3, mainly for samba3 + kerberos support, and I have some things I would like implemented, but don't have the time ... We could start with having Kerberos client-side setup tools, and break the authentication setup out into a drakxtool, which may get us Active Directory membership (which other competitors named after clothing seem not to have realised yet, even though they ship samba3 in their latest beta!). Regards, Buchan - -- |--------------Another happy Mandrake Club member--------------| Buchan Milne Mechanical Engineer, Network Manager Cellphone * Work +27 82 472 2231 * +27 21 8828820x202 Stellenbosch Automotive Engineering http://www.cae.co.za GPG Key http://ranger.dnsalias.com/bgmilne.asc 1024D/60D204A7 2919 E232 5610 A038 87B1 72D6 AC92 BA50 60D2 04A7 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.2 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQE/Kk4XrJK6UGDSBKcRAgpOAJ44XEEo3Z9dDpBT1YcU1WimAzaUGQCgi0t4 ohbxEIsl6bV/+d920260KzI= =6z6I -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ****************************************************************** Please click on http://www.cae.co.za/disclaimer.htm to read our e-mail disclaimer or send an e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a copy. ******************************************************************
