Re: here i come !

[Seth Nickell <snickell stanford edu>]

> * using ALSA ! OSS might be very good, but ALSA is the way to go, as it
> would mean we wouldn't need a sound server if all apps needing sound
> were to use native ALSA. A patch to libgnome, the correct versions of
> most libraries/packages (like SDL for example) and we're done. It also
> supports more soundcards than OSS/free

Lets avoid the "gee whiz" phenomenum and focus on user problems that we
need to solve. So the user problem is "support more sound cards". The
buest solution to that, to me, looks like using Alsa if it supports the
card and then OSS if it does not.

> * Easy "sharing" setup: ssh, samba, appletalk, http, and ftp. All
> optional, all already configured with nice defaults, and a simple GUI
> that says "Click here to start sharing". (yeah, just like MacOS X) This
> is a week-end's work with the Debian infrastructure.
> That's something that's very easy to do, and it would definetely give us
> an edge.

Sounds nice.

> * GUIs for command-line apps. Users shouldn't have to launch a terminal
> to do a ping or traceroute or such.

Preferably a single network tool focused on helping users solve the
sorts of problems you usually pull out ping/traceroute for (am I losing
packets? how is this being routed? etc) rather than a collection of
esoteric Unix utilities.

> * A working automounter, and feedback for hotplug and such.

User problem: "hardware should just work when plugged in, appropriate
icons should appear, and I should be able to access any new devices or
drives"

> * use of devfs, murasaki for hotplug, choice between ext2 and ext3, etc.
> (this might be a little too low-level for this discussion i must admit).

Sort of low-level, yes. DevFS could help us in achieving the user
problem I describe above.

> * Using the XST could make sense, for the boot-loader configuration for
> example, as different archs will use different bootloaders.

"Boot loader? What the hell is a boot loader?"

User problem: Make it convenient to control which operating system I
start in.

-Seth