Fedora usability : a new project?

[David Nielsen]

tir, 08 08 2006 kl. 17:16 -0500, skrev Rick Stuart 
> Provide an option to configure users with sufficient privileges so that 
> they can enter their OWN password for administrative access instead of 
> ROOT's.  ( /usr/bin/system-config-* linked to "consolehelper" )  For a 
> good model, check out UBUNTU......sorry about your toes.  Something like 
> /etc/consolehelpers a-la /etc/sudoers.

PolicyKit should provide this functionality the right way. I don't know
if we have an ETA on this being useful but I would rather wait for a
proper fix than use priviliage escalation that can introduce problems
like horrid security . having to audit half a million lines of GTK+ code
because it now runs as root and any slight bug could take down the
system is my very definition of not funny.

> I really like YUM, but I REALLY think that it sucks to explain it to 
> users who are new to Linux.  Package manager is nice, but then there is 
> that pesky root password requirement....."So, I'll just log in as root 
> so I don't have to type that password!"  It is miserably slow.    Does 
> it even connect to YUM?  I am not seeing all the available packages I 
> can see with 'yum list available'.  If that's not the right tool, then 
> why is it on the menu under 'Add/Remove software'?  Don't make me say 
> the U-word.

You should always provide some kind of authication when installing 
programs globally, not doing so is inviting all kinds of security issues. 
The software manager doesn't seem slow to me, however the UI locks up 
due to it not being threaded - Katz' has strong arguments against adding 
that kind of complexity to the code. I think we might need to make him 
compromise a bit to make the UI not appear like it died - users tend to not
like that behavior, myself included.

Ubuntu has the basically same setup was we do. 

> Give me better Themes choices.  That is a big deal...and...UBUNTU is not 
> any better....

You should join the artwork team and point out specific things that would 
add to your enjoyment of Fedora, just saying "make it better" isn't really
helpful. What are the specfic issues you have and do you have ideas to
investigate. 

If you can provide a mockup it would be great if not, a lenghty explanation
and maybe referencing parts of designs on gnome-look you do like would help 
us get to a default theme that was good looking while still retaining good 
usability across the board. 

> FIX GNOME's SCREENLOCK!!!!  I want the slideshow to be configurable like 
> KDE's....It USED to be!

No it didn't, we used to use xscreensaver which had all kinds of other 
problems, gnome-screensaver restored some sanity. If you want additional
features to gnome-screensaver upstream is the place to do it. I personally
fail to see why this is so huge an issue that you feel the need to scream.

If you have a specific thing that no longer works or could be improve please
provide a better description of your issue than "fix it". It is not very 
helpful for either one of us. It is also not likely to get your issue the
attention it deserves. 

> Make wireless drop dead obvious.  I hate to say it, but Windows has that 
> down.  MOST real users are going to be on laptops and Fedora is NOT 
> ready for them.

I think the solution here is Network-Manager, it is however not entirely 
ready for rollout. SuSE and SLED have replaced their entire networking 
system with it and it seems to work beautifully for them. This is being 
worked on heavily - have no fear. It will not make FC6 as the default 
but FC7 seems like the obvious place for it to be deployed - being a major
change it needs a metric shitload of testing so it needs to be deployed 
early in the test cycle.

> That's all I can think of right now.  I have poured on the gasoline and 
> I am waiting for the match...hurry, the gasoline is giving me a rash.  
> Oh, wait!!  One more....give up on the default mail-tool being 
> evolution.  Thunderbird!

Thunderbird isn't a suitable replacement for Evolution, we can't provide
the same functionality like Exchange integration with it. Also it doesn't
integrate as well with the underlying system as Evolution does. Another issue
to consider is migration of existing accounts to Thunderbird which isn't 
working right as I recall.

The proper solution would be to fix Evolution, maybe break it into seperate
applications so it would be easier to fix or replace in the future with 
better options. Evolution sadly isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

- David Nielsen