[Novalug] Device naming.

[Peter Larsen]

On Wed, 2010-03-17 at 08:03 -0400, Gopher wrote:

> >> Now, on to NetworkManager...
> > I remember long ago when I didn't trust DHCP because I liked the control
> > of setting everything statically. Those days are gone, thankfully.
> >
> > NetworkManager is a GNOME applet for managing network interfaces. It's
> > very good at this point and I have no problem at all trusting it. It
> > will manage multiple wireless configurations as well as wired
> > configurations simply and easily.
> Ah, good.  It is what I thought it was. ;)
> 
> As for DHCP, I love DHCP, we just don't use it where I work, thus 
> statics. And as far as NM goes, it wasn't a case of not trusting it, it 
> was a case of 'Why do I want to use that when I've already got my 
> network configured?'

Ahhh - for a server this statement makes a lot of sense. But think
workstation, wireless networks, changing locations etc. and the answer
is quite different. In my case I need wireless management and I also
need static IPs now and then. Wireless connectivity via configuration
files is "hairy" at best because everything has to match so I definitely
prefer a "helper" to just point and click to connect. When it comes to
static networks, I could of course do my static IP from the
configuration file - but since I already have NetworkManager there, it's
just a few clicks away to change the setting to a (temporary) static IP
when I'm on client sites. In addition, NetworkManager is supposedly able
to do VPN (never got it to work with non-linux VPN). So from a
workstation perspective, NetworkManager is vital.

A quick search (I'm not a KDE user) on networkManager and KDE brought up
http://en.opensuse.org/KNetworkManager - I found that package in Fedora
too. So the functionality isn't Gnome only.

> > I'm a little surprised that you don't use a lot of the GUI stuff on
> > Linux yet you do on your Mac. It's basically the same concepts going
> > on, but I think your work requirements for Linux don't present you the
> > need to use the GUI stuff, so you don't?
> >
> Basically yeah, I primarily set up databases and webservers, and there's 
> not much need for any GUI tools there.  

Have you EVER tried to install an Oracle DB on Linux?? (grin). Unless
you're an expert user able to create your response documents manually,
you have no option but go GUI. Several tools even require packages like
xscreensaver installed as prereqs for installing on Linux (*sic*).

My approach is usually to choose the basic Gnome (yeah, I'm a Gnome guy)
X for a server, but after the initial configuration, I switch the
runlevel to 3. Best of two worlds - one of the GREAT things I like on
Linux is that I can disable the GUI overhead in production. So I run
servers similar to you without starting X, but I do have basic X
libraries and the core Gnome desktop configured.

> I can move a hell of a lot 
> quicker with vim and sudo than I can with any GUI, given a choice, and I 
> can customize things how I want versus how some GUI developer thinks the 
> data should be organized. 

I would have said the same 5 years ago. Depending on your task, like
Wireless, the process of setting something up is a sequence of queries
and selections. That works better/faster with a GUI. Now, could the same
wizard be created on a character terminal? Sure. But it's a little
easier to just use the standard gui tools we all know how to use. 

> On my Mac, I use the GUI (Firefox, Thunderbird, iTunes), but there are a 
> lot of terminals open on it. ;)

On your mac, do you also manually change the configuration files for
your network setup?

> Thanks for the info, you've made me feel a lot better as I now know that 
> I'm not completely off base about what's been discussed this week. It 
> just turned out that it was one of those times when you pull your head 
> out of the webservers look around and go, WTF?! then realize the world 
> hasn't changed much, it's just evolved a bit.

Glad this thread was good for something :)
> novalug

-- 
Best Regards
  Peter Larsen

Wise words of the day:
I did this 'cause Linux gives me a woody.  It doesn't generate revenue.
	-- Dave '-ddt->` Taylor, announcing DOOM for Linux
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