One of the areas we've been working on after Solaris 10 has been
labelled "approachability"--a rather vague term for "eliminating
both annoying and substantial gaps in the operating system". Areas
we've been investigating include simplifying complex operations, like
rich networking configurations and service failure diagnosis, but
also include irritations for administrators, developers, and users
new to Solaris.
Obviously there is a host of irritations: the discussion of command
line editing and history for sh(1), the legitimate default settings
for root's shell, the difficulty of configuring certain basic network
settings have all come up on opensolaris.org mailing lists in the
past week. What we're trying to do in Approachability is refine
OpenSolaris development to be free of itchy seams, like these:
- why is there not a default NTP client configuration that works?
- why do I have to reset every network setting to change one safely?
- why is every network service on when I install the system?
- why do I have to change my PATH to find gcc and other useful
developer commands?
- why is this popular command/function/capability missing?
The list, while not endless, is longer than any of us would like;
what's important to note is that most, if not all, of these could
have been avoided up front *if* a larger discussion of "typical
usage" had occurred in the design discussions around each of these
features.
One thing to note: Approachability deficits are often also deficits
in security, usability, distribution completeness, or just basic
functionality. Once made, they almost always save people time, but
they might require balancing against other technical communities'
goals.
I'd like to get this discussion out and onto opensolaris.org, so that
inputs, fixes, and new ideas come from the larger set of people who
care about OpenSolaris adoption. If you are interested, please let
me know, or just join in. Thus:
---
This message proposes the creation of an Approachability community
for OpenSolaris. Please discuss.
---
Thanks
Stephen
--
Stephen Hahn, PhD Solaris Kernel Development, Sun Microsystems
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://blogs.sun.com/sch/
_______________________________________________
opensolaris-discuss mailing list
opensolaris-discuss@opensolaris.org
