Approachability of computer systems [LWN.net]

Approachability of computer systems

Posted May 14, 2025 20:05 UTC (Wed) by jengelh (subscriber, #33263)
Parent article: The last of YaST?

>YaST [...] made Linux more approachable for many users.

Programs were quite unapproachable at the time. Some would:

* not start without a config file at all (/usr/bin/X, /usr/bin/man)
* use of bespoke hardware that did not support autoconfig or only poorly so (stuff on ISA buses, and COM, LPT connected-devices)
* had or have complex, sometimes overly complex, config files (pppd/modem stuff, sendmail.cf, grub2)
* might not function as expected when "optional" index files were absent (thinking fc-cache)

These days, on the other hand, you can just run fdisk & mkfs from a rescue shell, put a bunch of files into it, and already have a working system on the next boot. The use case for yast is evaporating and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

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Approachability of computer systems

Posted May 15, 2025 2:11 UTC (Thu) by raven667 (subscriber, #5198) [Link]

> The use case for yast is evaporating and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I don't think the use for config management UI is significantly less than before but the specific technology gets rebuilt as each generation has different preferences and the base line technologies evolve. A TUI/GUI like YaST was good back then, and there was Webmin as well, but now Cockpit might be a better fit for the way systems are built today, which isn't removing config management UI, just changing the tech stack around what is available and we'll maintained today

Approachability of computer systems

Posted May 15, 2025 8:51 UTC (Thu) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link] (1 responses)

> These days, on the other hand, you can just run fdisk & mkfs from a rescue shell, put a bunch of files into it, and already have a working system on the next boot. The use case for yast is evaporating and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Have you read today's "Brief Items" and the rant on accessibility? Sounds like "successfully running a rescue shell" is rapidly becoming a thing of the past for today's disabled users ...

Cheers,
Wol

Approachability of computer systems

Posted May 15, 2025 15:55 UTC (Thu) by jengelh (subscriber, #33263) [Link]

>Sounds like "successfully running a rescue shell" is rapidly becoming a thing of the past for disabled users

I can't relate to either of the two things. How hard could it be to pass init=/bin/sh console=ttyS0 to the kernel? (ignoring the drama with non-accessible bootloaders for now)