Re: Why is PPP so screwed up!?!?!

[csmall@gonzo.triode.net.au]

CoB SysAdmin typed:
> Yes, I've read the Serial HOWTO. I've read the PPP HOWTO. I've even read the
> PPP RFC. I know what IPCP does and I know what LCP does.
> 
> But I shouldn't have to.
> 
> I didn't have to read the LILO HOWTO to get my machine to boot Linux. I
> didn't have to read anything about the timezone system to get the timezone
> set right. I didn't have to read about "mount(1)", or "mke2fs(1)", or
> "mknod(1)", or anything else like that. Oddly, the Debian install program
> handled it all for me, as it should. But it's lack of any setup for PPP...
> it's lack of even *mentioning* that PPP is on the system already... seems
> to indicate that there was almost a conscious decision to throw the user
> to the lions on this part.
I think this is the core of the matter.  We have some people saying "I can't
get PPP going", we have others saying "It's easy, RTFM".  I feel there is a
problem with this attitude.  

For a user to use Debian, they have to get something extra out of it than
they would if they just grabbed the tar.gz files and read the doco's.  
And by far the most important thing to get right and make easy for a user is
the initial setup, because if I've trashed my hard drives to put Debian on,
its not such a big step to trash them again if I switch to say, RedHat.  It
is a big hassle a few months later.

Telling the user "we have PPP, off you go" is not enough, we really should
be trying to do more to help them.  I don't think the variations in ppp
servers (or ISPs) are insurmountable; perhaps someone should look and see
how some ms-windows programs get around this problem.  It would be great if
with 5 disks and a phone modem I could big a system from scratch.  I've done
it with Ethernet connected systems before (except for yesterday, you've got
some nasty bugs out there fellars) and it's pretty impressive to do.

  - Craig vk2xlz

-- 
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