"Let's face it; some distributions have better controls for handling display issues than others. Two that do it right out of the box that come to mind include Fedora (Red Hat) and openSUSE (Novell). Each includes tools that minimize the need to do what I gleefully refer to as the 'Xorg dance'. Basically, these options mean you are going to be spending more time exploring what these distros have to offer, yet less time wondering why your resolution looks completely off. Unfortunately, even with the latest release of Ubuntu, we have yet to see this level of functionality."
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Member since:2007-02-22
You hit the nail on the head when you praised YaST for getting it right. YaST is the finest, most-comprehensive system configuration tool I have ever seen on Linux--and perhaps on any operating system.
Ubuntu should definitely pick up something YaST-like because the concept goes well with Ubuntu's "Linux for human beings" ease-of-use mantra. However, I'm not so sure if they should pick up YaST itself. YaST has a lot of things that need ironing out, namely in the performance department. The old oaf works extremely well, but it's slow as hell. It's also not open-ended enough; the 'wizards' are too rigid and linear.
On top of that, while SaX2 pretty much knocks the socks off of every other display configuration utility in terms of "fast configuration" and "just works", I think it does not read the actual conf file, just its internal one, and I know it always makes a new one. There are a number of situations where this could be problematic, namely with the people that 'hack' their own x.conf or get other utilities to do it for them.
But don't get me wrong: YaST (and SaX) is indeed a damn good tool, especially in the hands of an experienced computer user migrating to Linux. In fact, YaST is one of the things that got me hooked on SuSE. (That and its superb hardware detection, but that's beyond the scope of this post.) Despite that, YaST just doesn't "fit" with Ubuntu in its current state, though using YaST's source would definitely be a very good starting point for a global Ubuntu configuration utility.
What I'd really like to see in Ubuntu is a Control Panel akin to the System Preferences app in OS X. I'm sure a lot of people would disagree with me on this one, but I think it'd work quite well for Ubuntu's target audience. Configuring the distro should be done in one centralized, streamlined, and well-organized place, with a search field where you can type what you're looking for. It should be brain-dead simple to configure things that have to "just work" in order to prevent Windows users from crawling back to MS, like displays, proprietary codecs, sharing an Internet connection, and adding/removing software. Kubuntu has the right idea with its System Settings applet, but it needs more polish and the ability to easily configure the aforementioned rough spots.
Member since:2005-09-28
"YaST has a lot of things that need ironing out, namely in the performance department. The old oaf works extremely well, but it's slow as hell."
When people say that they often refer to the package management module of YaST.
Name one other module of YaST that is slow?
Most modules do complex things, yet they popup within 2 seconds when selected, I wouldn't call that slow.
Member since:
2006-01-28
I am a big fan of what Ubuntu is trying to do, but they have nothing that matches the wealth of tools that Yast offers. Considering that Yast has been under the GPL for close to two years, it is incomprehensible why Ubuntu doesn't pick this up and run.
There are literally years of development effort in Yast and it shows as it is a very useful and powerful set of tools.