Re: Some unanswered questions about SEUL (plz ack!)

[Erik Walthinsen <omega@omegacs.net>]

> One more thing I was thinking but forgot to put in the last msg was that
> the window manager and Qt have nothing to do with the applications we
> can support.  I'm currently running Netscape under KDE and it works just
> fine.  We would want to have any SEUL specific API's be completely based
> on free software, no doubt about that.  But that doesn't *necessarily*
> mean we can't use the KDE window manager, and there are plenty of
> software projects in progress for it (all freeware).  So it *does* seem
> like a good idea to me, *IF* it's the best.
However, I'd like to try to maintain a single look-n-feel throughout the 
system.  In order to do that we have to limit what we can stamp 
"SEUL-approved" or whatever.  Given the way the market works, an application 
can't simply ignore such a stamping, because if they do the market ignores 
them.  If we use Qt, the range of products that can be stamped is limited to 
those that can buy the Qt license.

If, however, the KDE window manager and parts of it's application base look 
like what we decide on for SEUL, then there's no problem in using Qt, as 
longs as there is an alternative.  However, given the structure I'm thinking 
of for the general UI system, this won't work.  Applications will need to be 
chameleons, and this support will be provided by the UI library.  I'll have 
to think more about how this will all work before I say too much more, else 
I'll work myself into a nice hole.

> RedHat 5 uses Afterstep...let's see how that works.  It may be just as
> good.
Actually, I think you can choose between a few, including fvwm95 (ew).  I'll
find out tomorrow, as I just finished ftp'ing the whole thing to work.  I'll
be burning a few CD's and testing it out as soon as I have a chance (though
I have finals next week...).


> I'd say give others the *chance* to do it with our stuff.  If they
> don't, we make the distrib.  Simple enough?  :-)
It's all a matter of timing.  During our initial development enough people 
will know about it to be able to take what we have and put it into their 
distributions.  If one decides to take all of our work, and we decide that 
their setup is good enough, *and* we decide to effectively merge, then we 
might end up with a distribution that way.

I predict, however, that there won't be any distributions willing to take 
more than a small portion of our code, and none of those will be generic 
enough (like RedHat) for general distribution (many distribs are fairly 
specific to a certain audience).

My stance is one of 'wait and see'.  We'll plan our products as if we had 
complete control over the distribution, but try to code things as modular as 
possible.  If nothing develops from other distributions, we can do our own.  
We have the time, and as I've mentioned there's relatively little extra work
in actually creating a full set of images == a distribution, if necessary.

      Erik Walthinsen - SEUL Project infrastructure/system architecture
        __
       /  \           omega@sequent.com         Work: (503)578-5314
      |    | M E G A  omega@omegacs.net         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



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