some really basic networking questions

[dep]

begin  Pam R's  quote:

| Seems that you can stop this behaviour globally by setting
| ENABLE_SUSECONFIG=no
| in  /etc/sysconfig/suseconfig
| or for a more selective approach add the same line at the start of
| the appropriate file in /etc/sysconfig/

which now irreversably breaks other things suse. 

the solution would be a little dab of code which, when it finds 
changes, echoes them and asks if the user wishes to keep them or to 
change them to what suseconfig thinks they should be. the perfect 
example is the default runlevel.

| So, does that mean you can now really love suse?

i don't think it's possible to really love suse. a couple of examples: 
when caldera 2.4 found a partition mounted as /home, by default it 
*would not* format it. i spent most of an hour yesterday finding how 
to *prevent* suse from formatting it. anf with the "yast online 
update," the downloaded rpms are retained, by default. this is not 
terribly bad -- you is notoriously broken. but what *is* bad is that 
they are kept in /var/lib/YaST/patches/i386/update/[version]/[suse's 
inexplicable naming scheme], with /var/lib/YaST given permissions 
that prohibit users from seeing its contents at all. such that /var 
can get full of all these rpms, and most people would never dream of 
looking there when a partition gets full. of course, /var is a fine 
place for suse to log what yast has done -- but keeping the actual 
packages there? (there is a little box on the umpteenth page of you 
which you can uncheck so as not to retain the packages, but it's 
about as obscurely placed as a thing can be. the answer, of course, 
is a.) to put that checkbox on the first page, labeled "retain 
packages after they've been successfully applied?" and coded such 
that the initial user choice becomes the subsequent default and b.) 
to put the packages someplace else either way; ideally, the user 
could even specify where. (for instance, i keep a ~/download 
directory, and i'd be far more inclined to keep the packages if i 
could tell you to put 'em there.)

the trend sadly seems to be toward ease of use for those who have 
never used linux *at the expense of* those who are familiar with it. 
and suse is at the forefront of that trend, with kde following 
merrily along. which in turn is the chief reason, beyond friends we 
have or had there, why the turn caldera has taken is so sad. 
caldera's installation routine was just about the most intelligent 
around. lisa, for all its annoyances, was a not bad configuration 
tool -- and it certainly could have been developed to become better, 
both for old hands and for newbies. and it never took the approach 
that users are idiots.

but suse and the others, who hold the apparent view that the only 
users worth having are the ones they don't yet have, and to hell with 
existing users, aren't doing anyone any favors, least of all 
themselves. the thinking is way too short sighted.
-- 
dep

http://www.linuxandmain.com -- outside the box, barely within the 
envelope, and no animated paperclip anywhere.