Re: Why is Desktop NetBSD a threat to NetBSD?

[Andrew Reilly <andrew-netbsd%areilly.bpc-users.org@localhost>]

On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 10:26:23AM -0700, Andy Ruhl wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 8:26 AM, Greg A. Woods; Planix, Inc.
> <woods%planix.ca@localhost> wrote:
> > Modern end users of desktop systems expect an even greater integration
> > between the desktop and the underlying OS than ever before and so if NetBSD
> > is to gain a good desktop environment it may very well be that it _must_ be
> > at the expense of the comfortable and easy human sysadmin management ways we
> > have now.
> 
> But I think from the original mail, if I'm reading it right, making
> Desktop NetBSD was mostly just to save the time of having to go out
> and download and install desktop software, not to Solve All Computer
> Problems With A Slick Interface.
> 
> I think the scope can quickly get out of hand if elaborate integration
> is expected.

My point was that the scope will get out of hand anyway.

You can't just help people to download GNOME and install it,
because GNOME (and now xorg itself) needs hal, and hal is the
crux of the problem.  You can't just install linux-hal, because
it wants to talk to the underlying system in the linux way
(whatever that is).  *someone* will have to support netbsd-hal
in pkgsrc, (along with all of the XML-based configuration
mechanisms that go with it), and that is going to be a large and
on-going job.

Maybe it's worth it.  The FreeBSD GNOME folk seem to think it
is, and are working on it with great vigor.  I'm just saying
that it's not as simple as it sounds, and the implications are
large and on-going.

As others have said, if you don't want to bite off this much
pie, you can probably still make something that looks like
a desktop by staying with traditional window managers like
WindowMaker or fvwm, and leaving folk to do their own system
administration, same as it ever was.  I'm not sure that that
will satisfy the people aiming for Desktop NetBSD, though.  I
think that a "Desktop" system (of today) really needs the "right
thing" to happen when someone inserts a CD or a USB drive...

Cheers,

-- 
Andrew