[LAD] LADI

[fons at kokkinizita.net]

On Sat, Nov 21, 2009 at 12:51:35AM +0000, Victor Lazzarini wrote:

> >If I'd respond to all technical issues you raise the
> >result would be a 30-page paper. Maybe I should present
> >it a the next LAC, to be hung on the nearest high tree
> >shortly afterwards.
> 
> I think you should (present at at the LAC, not be hung on the
> nearest tree). That's a very good forum for these discussions.
> Perhaps a Panel discussion on 'desktop' versus 'pro-audio' could be
> set up.

The conflict is not desktop vs. pro-audio. Even pro-audio users
want to use their desktops. 

The real problem is all the auto-configuration and security
policy that gets added by the e.g. the Kit familiy and friends
in order to please the typical user who is happy to trade in
his autonomy and security for convenience. And it's being done
in a way that makes it near impossible to manually configure
a system.

Just one example. In the original CdS setup the three 
rendering machines had a KVM switch and a shared screen,
mouse and keyboard. The idea was that maybe it could be
practical to login locally every now and then. Result:
a local login made the system unusable, as the audio
devices would be re-assigned to the local user. This
is done 'somehow' by gdm. I have wasted days trying to
find out where exactly this happened and how it could
be disabled. I did not find the solution, it's all done
behind the screens, probably by some members of the Kit
familiy or their friends. So in the end I just removed
the KVM switch and everything related, and made the
machines boot into runlevel 3, no local desktop logins
allowed at all.

I'm moving to ArchLinux because at least there you
remain more or less in control. For now that is.


Ciao,

-- 
FA

Io lo dico sempre: l'Italia è troppo stretta e lunga.