Re: Another possible slink goal (multipackages users profile)
> Guy Maor wrote:
> > Adding programs to be run automatically is an even worse idea. On a
> > single-person system, the user knows what software is installed
> > because he installed it. And a user on a multi-user system certainly
> > doesn't want random programs run on login because the administrator
> > thinks they're neat.
> Since Debian comes with >1500 packages and since people simply install
> things they don't know of - even I do that partially - we cannot depend
> on people knowing what programs and services are running.
This is a documentation problem. Forcing users of a system to run
programs (under circumstances where they can't turn it off, pass options
to it, etc.) won't teach them how to use the system and in the general
case is not user friendly.
Remember that (for example in a distributed X environment) not all
logins are "interactive". I may be logging in and acquiring a pty
because I need to run a dos program which requires some resource
on that specific machine (for example). Or maybe I'm just firing
up an xterm, or whatever...
Anyways, firing up some program is a lot more than just setting some
environmental variables and should be at user option. [Or at
least at sysadmin option -- if the sysadmin wants all users of
a shell to run some programs the sysadmin can always provide a
wrapper for that shell. But there are many environments where
this is not appropriate, so I don't think we should be doing it
for all systems.]
--
Raul
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