[cobalt-users] Wish List...

["Robert G. Fisher" <rfisher@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is really less of a wish list, but after going through
the web demo for the RaQ4, I can't help but wonder -- just
when is Cobalt going to incorporate a database design tool 
into the UI?

In the RaQ3, PostgreSQL was shipped, my understanding that
a product from InterBase is shipped with the RaQ4, now 
while as a geek I mourn the departure from PostgreSQL to
a closed source application and thus wonder what the 
reasoning was for the switch...

But as someone in the business and trying to survive, I can
see some of the logic to using a multitude of closed source
applications such as FrontPage, Chillisoft ASP, etc as the
basic business ideal seems to make linux application servers
available en masse to the world of PHBs at large ;-).

Of course, I'm typing this with my tounge in cheek.
I don't think that any of Cobalt's products have been
marketed to the power linux user, but rather have been
working largely off the hype surrounding linux and 
taking advantage of the fact that there is an interest
in the OS, and that a large number of the people who
are expressing an interest in the system for commercial
purposes are not likely to be very technical, so to make
it simple enough for anyone to be able to use it with
tools they should already know...

So I'm going to go ahead and voice some things I wouldn't
mind seeing included in the UI, and that should stay within
the range of appealing to the target market without going
over their heads in technical aspects.

    1)  Perhaps a lower cost on SSL support since the RSA
        patents which require the licensing fee be paid
	expire next month.  Okay, I know that's more of a
	dream than anything to actually expect but heh.

    2)  The database design tool integrated into the web UI.
        With PostgreSQL or MySQL for instance, the average 
	manager who might be thrilled with the concept of 
	having a free database platform, but chances are
	he won't understand how to operate it from the
	command line tools.  He might even understand
	how to use FrontPage or similiar tools to work
	with the ASP and ODBC tools to work from there,
	but actually setting up the DB, unless it's tied
	into something along the lines of pgAdmin (which
	let's face it, you have to go hunt for anyway..)
	then the onboard database may be left in the wind.

    3)  Some workaround for the NGROUPS_MAX 32 or a change
        in the scheme from what was used in the RaQ2 for
	admin -- Or has this been resolved somewhere?

    4)  With the advent of the RaQ2s and above that have a
        SCSI adapter, it might be nice to incorporate a way
	to have a web UI for 'attaching storage' for external
	drives or even tape libraries -- and in the event of
	tape drives, autoloaders, or libraries -- further have
	support to back up to this media in the UI rather than
	assume all backups either go through HTTP, Legato, or
	Arkiera.  Course, at the idea of an autoloader or backup
	you could essentially spin off a new product under
	the NASRAQ category as a backup server.

That's really about it, the other items are things easily added
by a techie -- but no easily added by a distributor such as ssh.

-- 
Robert G. Fisher		     NEOCOM Microspecialists Inc. 
System Administrator/Programmer      (540) 666-9533 x 116