Re: SEUL: SOTs comments

[Erik Walthinsen <omega@aracnet.com>]

> you've never done tech support, have you?
Yes, I have two parents who do web and e-mail on the computer downstairs.  
This is complicated by the fact that it's running W95, which has no useful 
concept of user logins, no file protections, and goes so far as to create a 
new user if you spell your login incorrectly.  I know what the issues are.

> every button a user can press,
> they will.  if you can't limit them to a small box, they'll break
> everything they can find that isn't immediately obvious. You'll get users
> who load the kernel into the gimp and gaussian blur it. they'll get rid
> of "all the ugly hash-marks at the beginning of comment lines".
Remember that we are basing this entire project on Unix, not DOS.  DOS (and 
thus W95) has no concept of file ownership, protections, etc.  Unix does.  
How is a user going to save a gaussian blurred kernel "image" if they don't 
have write permissions to the file?  They would specifically have to log in 
as root in a shell, change perms, save the file, and change them back.  The 
first trick is to find a shell, second is to have a clue how to use it, third 
is to know what permissions are, etc.  Anyone who doesn't know what a kernel
is and why they shouldn't gaussian blur it won't get past the first step.

> Someone has to administer the system -- who's gonna do it?
Given Unix permissions and tools, it can be done automatically.  Cron is your 
friend.  All the interactive tasks (adding/deleting users and programs just 
about covers everything) will be done with a user interface that hides the 
entire concept of Unix.  Everything else should be, and can be, done
automatically.  A standalone home machine should require absolutely no care 
and feeding from anyone, unless something breaks badly.

      Erik Walthinsen - SEUL Project infrastructure/system architecture
        __
       /  \           omega@sequent.com         Work: (503)578-5314
      |    | M E G A  omega@aracnet.com         Home: (503)281-4281
      _\  /_          psu12113@odin.cc.pdx.edu  Majoring in CS

       SEUL: Simple End-User Linux - creating a Linux distribution
     http://www.seul.org/            for the average home/office user