From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Fri, 18 May 2001 13:07:38 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Fri, 18 May 2001 13:07:22 -0400 Received: from fjordland.nl.linux.org ([131.211.28.101]:53000 "EHLO fjordland.nl.linux.org") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Fri, 18 May 2001 13:07:07 -0400 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII From: Daniel Phillips To: Arjan van de Ven , "Eric S. Raymond" , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: CML2 design philosophy heads-up Date: Fri, 18 May 2001 19:07:36 +0200 X-Mailer: KMail [version 1.2] In-Reply-To: <20010518034307.A10784@thyrsus.com> <20010518105353.A13684@thyrsus.com> <3B053B9B.23286E6C@redhat.com> In-Reply-To: <3B053B9B.23286E6C@redhat.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-Id: <01051819073604.00491@starship> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Friday 18 May 2001 17:11, Arjan van de Ven wrote: > > (a) Back off the capability approach. That is, accept that > > people doing configuration are going to explicitly and > > exhaustively specify low-level hardware. > > > > > I don't want to do (a); it conflicts with my design objective of > > simplifying configuration enough that Aunt Tillie can do it. I > > won't do that unless I see a strong consensus that it's the only > > Right Thing. > > Aunt Tillie doesn't even know what a kernel is, nor does she want to. A little presumptuous, no? I do in fact know an 'Aunt Tillie' type who configures her own kernel. When she gets stuck she calls for help from her son, who is a computer geek. > I think it's fair to assume that people who configure and compile their own > kernel (as opposed to using the distribution supplied ones) know what they > are doing. Not a fair assumption, if only because everybody does it for the first time. > Or at least make something like a "Expert level" question as first question, so > that people who DO know what they are doing can select the options they want. Yes. The hackneyed platitude that 'easy' and 'powerful' are mutually exclusive is a statistical observation, not a law of the universe. -- Daniel