"Next Generation" kernel configuration?

[Andrew Konstantinov]

On Wed, Jul 21, 2004 at 05:43:45AM -0700, Avleen Vig wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 20, 2004 at 07:39:31PM -0500, Conrad J. Sabatier wrote:
> > Just musing on an idea here:
> > 
> > I've been thinking for a while now about trying to write a tool to make
> > kernel configuration easier, sort of a "make config" (as in ports) for
> > the kernel, similar to what's available on some of the Linux distros.
> 
> I've read over the other posts in this thread, but I cannot say I think
> this is a good idea. In fact, I think it's a very bad idea, but with
> very good intentions. Here's why..
> 
> I'm a strong proponent of user education. The FreeBSD handbook is one of
> the best education tools for someone who wants to use FreeBSD, right
> from beginner to more advanced levels.
> 
> A "config tool", while useful for beginners, would quickly result is
> those beginners not learning about building a kernel themselves, copying
> GENERIC to `hostname -s | tr "[:lower:]" "[:upper:]"`, editing it,
> learning what is in LINT, remembering to look through there, etc.
> This process teaches users a lot about how a BSD kernel is configured,
> what options are availible, and where to look for more options.
> 
> The end result would be more people building kernels themselves, but not
> knowing what is actually happening, or what more is possible. It would
> mean less educated users, and I don't think that is somewhere any
> organization needs to go (look at what happened to the average Microsoft
> user's IQ level, after people stopped using DOS and started having
> machines do the work for them).
> 
> Like I said, I think your intentions are good, but I have concerns about
> the suggested solution.

I think such a tool would actually influence user education in a positive way.
Here is a sample scenario:

1) User starts this "program" to configure the kernel
2) User sees unknown to him option
3) User decides to look it up on www.google.com
4) "That's a nice feature, although I don't really need it"
5) GOTO 1

The only suggestion I have is to make it a third party program and not build it
into the make procedure for the kernel. It would look like pkg_tree that's
located in ports, although with a better ncurses interface.

Andrew
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