In article <1992Aug9.192757.27571@athena.mit.edu> tytso@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Theodore Ts'o) writes:
quoted text
>
>This is why a Linux committee would not terribly productive; if it's
>composed of people who do nothing more than demand that volunteers spend
>even more of their time working on it, so that it becomes "acceptable"
>--- it won't work, and it will only breed resentment on both sides.  If
>it is composed of those who are actually doing the work --- well, those
>who are already doing the work currently have the say about what their
>work produces; why have a committee to formalize such things?

One quite big point that you forgot:  Getting a committee of people to
agree on anything in a reasonable timespan is damned near impossible.
The Linux Standards Committee is the best example of this - not a
single *final* draft has been issued forth, and even the rough drafts
have huge problems with them that nobody seems willing to discuss.

If a committee is formed, decisions will still be ultimately made by
individuals.

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>As for system administration tools --- that is still an unsolved
>problem; I have yet to see a general purpose system administrator's tool
>that works in all environments; handles everything that a potential
>sysadmin might want to do; and doesn't get in the way of an experienced
>administrator.  Why are people demanding that Linux provide a solution
>to an unsolved research problem?

Better yet, why are people demanding it without doing anything about
it?  I still have not seen a good 'adduser' utility for Linux - a
crude one (meaning no fancy curses interface) shouldn't take more than
a couple of evening programming sessions to write.  A user-friendly
one (read: fancy curses interface) shouldn't be that much harder.

As it is, the only adduser tool I've seen is one that claims to
have been written during the commericals of a TV show, and it looks
like it.  Hell, even the passwd/chsh programs out there aren't the
greatest.

A fancy sysadmin tool that did everything but make coffee would be
great, but we don't even have decent simple admin tools.

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>in summary, if you're not satisfied with how Linux is progressing, put
>in the time and effort to improve the areas you are complaining about.

I couldn't have said it better myself, and I'm surprised it's taken
this long for someone to say it.

-- 
                                    +    Jim Winstead Jr. (CSci '95)
                                    |            Harvey Mudd College
                                    | jwinstea@jarthur.Claremont.EDU
                                    + This is all my words.  Honest!