Re: More on the future LDAP admin gui in Debian Edu

["Andreas B. Mundt" <andi.mundt@web.de>]

Hi,

once again a mail about the LDAP administration tool we need in
Debian-Edu. Since Petter's mail
<URL:http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2010/09/msg00110.html>
almost a month passed:

On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 06:59:44PM +0200, Petter Reinholdtsen wrote:
> Here is a short update on the LDAP admin status for Debian Edu based
> on Squeeze.

The only changes I know of concern GOsa and the latest package in
squeeze which fixes the password exposure issue; now you need to
be either root or www-data to see the environment in the process
list. Changes to debian-edu-config are minimal, I will apply them as
soon as 2.6.11-2 enters squeeze, which should happen in approximately
a week from now. The mass creation of users works in my tests too.

Please add information about progress on the other tools mentioned.

My question is:

What is the plan? Almost since the beginning of this year we decide
*not* to decide anything at all concerning LDAP administration. I
think this is fine for some time, to see how things evolve. 

But at some point it just takes away motivation and leads to a passive
waiting for the things to come. Nobody wants to spend his time on
things that are rejected in the end.  

How long do we want to continue waiting and for what? For another
alternative tool turning up at the horizon that promises everything?
Squeeze+1? Miracles? Or do we prefer to have 2 half-baked
administration tools, one for users and groups, one for machines and
netgroups, a couple of scripts to add users and ldapvi for all
remaining stuff?

In my opinion it is better to accept that there is no perfect tool
available at the moment (and perhaps forever), and to decide _now_
which administration tool we want to ship for squeeze. After that
decision, it makes sense to complete the integration. There should be
time left to test and look into remaining issues and fixes, to
document and prepare the manual.

So let's name things by their names: 

As Petter already listed, we have 3 candidates: CipUX, GOsa and
lwat. (Or is there already another one approaching?)

Which tool do we ship for squeeze? (And keep in mind: not deciding is
also a decision, but I doubt it's the best one for
Debian-Edu/skolelinux a couple (?) of months before squeeze release).    

Regards,

	Andi