[Mageia-dev] Drakxnet, drakroam and Draknetcenter : let's fix it or throw it.

Mon Aug 1 20:21:21 CEST 2011

Op maandag 01 augustus 2011 11:42:26 schreef Thomas Lottmann:
+> Hello,
+> 
+> I should have written this mail much sooner, but finally, I am totally,
+> completely and starting to be hatefully fed up of these tools.
+> 
+> The Mandriva/Mageia tools that manage the network on computers,
+> especially the wireless networks are completely dysfunctional. While the
+> Network Center does not seem to even communicate with the system tools
+> to know what is happening during the link setup, it does not
+> auto-refresh network lists properly.
+> 
+> Since 2010.1 now even mixes up itself in it's own network scripts (the
+> ones stored in wireless.d). This maxes it wrongly detect numerous
+> wireless points (he seen WPA2 Enterperise hotspots as opened or WEP, or
+> more nerving, becomes incapable or storing the right authentication
+> information). A tool that breaks itself is a complete shame!
+> 
+> The GUI is also appalling. Despite it's numerous possibilities, it is a
+> mess and 60% of it cannot be used by something else than the system or a
+> network expert.
+> 
+> The code itself is undocumented and it extremely difficult to read.
+> 
+> These tools are getting really bad and not working properly anyway since
+> a long time now. So either we fix it and improve it (recoding?), either
+> we definitely switch to Network Manager. I am ready to participate if
+> necessary (despite my lack of competence), but I do not want to see
+> these tools 'as is' on my computer anymore, and no longer want to see
+> these issues that down Mageia's reputation in comparison to other
+> popular projects here such as Arch, Fedora or Ubuntu, who do have proper
+> tools delivered by default.
+> 
+> This is not the first time I complain about this tool. We should not
+> leave this unchanged. It is far too annoying and pushing to so much loss
+> of time.
+> 
+> Yours sincerely,.
+> 
+> Thomas.
+
+
+personally, alot of problems could likely be attributed to using all those 
+several of those apps together.
+
+imho, the network tools should be redesigned a bit, according to good 
+usability, but mostly, either they should all be nicely integrated which each 
+other, or we should just have one that does all nicely.
+
+personally, i find the netapplet the best working and use that exclusively to 
+avoid issues.
+
+but sadly, even netapplet is far from complete.
+
+as some kind of start, we should have an app that exists in drakconf, but also 
+accessible via an applet, but again, perhaps we should have multiple applets, 
+with one for each connection.
+
+eg: a wifi access link, 2 network connections (one of which goes to internet), 
+and 3 openvpn tunnels (as an example) it would even be better, if bluetooth 
+networking could also be included. (this would also allow for multiple 
+internet connections at a later time with some advanced routing)
+
+at the same time, people could tell at a glance if they accidentally use more 
+than one internet access method.
+
+about openvpn, some of those are user-related (even though they have effects on 
+global routing), especially password related things, personally, i think it'd 
+be better if these can only be controlled through the applet by the user it's 
+from (with perhaps an option to allow any user to control this too)
+
+again with openvpn, it would be usefull if there was some kind of way to know 
+it's not only running, but also if it's essentially active or not, and if it's 
+used as a internet gateway.
+
+These are some things which i have noticed over the years of using it and 
+listening to end-user problems.
+
+
+perhaps the above can be used as a starting point for a usability scheme.
+
+Thomas, since you feel this strongly, are you willing to spend some time on 
+this?
+