On Thu, 2003-05-29 at 12:07, Tarun Dua wrote: > An old article that struck me!!! > http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=5489 > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > With Linux moving to the desktop, life gets more complicated for system > administrators. > > Until now, system administrators running Linux have had it fairly easy. > But this won't last long. Why? Well, until now Linux has been basically > a server OS. The GUI, and therefore window manager, was just a pretty > option. But as Linux moves to the desktop, the Linux system > administrator's life becomes much more complicated. Now, it's not just a > matter of knowing how to configure sendmail, DNS and Apache, but being > able to fix GUIs users have managed to break somehow. That means > knowing, inside and out, KDE, GNOME, XFCE, TWM, FVWM, MWM, Blackbox, > etc. > This is a myth. If you are already adminstrating windows based desktops for users in addition to the server adminstrations, it should not make any difference when they switch to a decent[1] GNU/linux desktop (like GNOME or KDE).
Unlike server setups, these desktops have fairly easy configuration setups, because they were designed keeping in mind the requirements of an average user (not admin). Desktop setups rarely require looking into the internal configuration files. In fact, it will rarely require the service of a system admin. If your user is dumb enough not to be able to configure his desktop, then he should not be using the desktop (or the computer) in the first place. It would be like calling your cable operator for surfing the channels in your TV. Also, please note that a Desktop is an abstract entity representing a collection of applications. While the core desktop itself may be very easy to manage, the desktop applications may pose certain level of configuration difficulty to the users. But it is always tried to make the applications which are part of the desktop to be easy to configure and consistent. All application in a desktop are guided by certain guidelines and hence they share extensive similarity (in terms of GUI, configurability, accessibility, usability etc.). Window managers are not desktops and therefore they are not different from any other application which requires configuration. On the other hand, saying that "you will need to learn the configuration of all the available window managers" is similar to saying that "You will need to learn the configuration of all available web servers". Regards, -Naba [1] Extensive usability and accessibility analysis are performed and accordingly the features are implemented in a decent desktop (GNOME comes to my mind). _______________________________________________ ilugd mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd
