[KLUG Members] Samba - PDC

[Bryan-TheBS-Smith]

Adam Tauno Williams wrote:
> The profile model actually makes more sense in some regards.  First it
> gets it all out of the way.  GNOME is constantly grousing around in
> ~/.gnome which can be a little slow if you are using NFS.  If it copied
> ~/.gnome to /tmp/{username} when I logged in,  and copied it back when I
> logged out that would be a better solution.

The problem is that the copy back/forth ordeal means there are two
copies, and several versions of Windows has logic that is just piss-poor
on deciding which one is the right one when a mobile user reconnects or
the network goes down.

But that's not even the "main issue."  Microsoft puts different things
in different places, and has been changing them so much, most
applications don't deal with it.  I also find even Microsoft's own
programs seem to "reset settings" all the time.  E.g., I try to change
the location of temporary files _out_ of the stupid roaming profile so
I'm not copying 100MB+ everytime I login/out.  After a few logins, it
always gets reset back to the non-local directory.

As such, I think the NFS approach is better with one caveat -- caching. 
Hence why replacements like AFS are even more ideal!  For my Internet
browsers and other programs that want to always create temporary files
in my home directory, I just symlink to a directory in /tmp and make
sure my login script checks for the appropriate directories in /tmp (and
creates them if necessary).

> It would also protect it from getting crunched if something went
> wrong with my session, as the crunched copy wouldn't be copied
> back to the master.

Not always as the sync logic might get some things wrong.  In the case
of MS roaming profiles, it seems to do this more often than not by
default (and even if I tweak some settings).

> IMHO, Microsoft was right to do it the way they did/do.

I would have preferred they do something like AFS does.  Better yet,
they've changed the places where different programs/settings go, not
even their own applications division gets it right.

No, I have to say the "approach" from the UNIX side is better -- one
home directory, everything goes there.  The only issue, as you
mentioned, is NFS.  But that's just an implementation issue that is
fixed with more recent, caching network filesystems like AFS.

> As for storing documents in the profile,  I have to agree that seems
> rather dumb.  You end up replicating lots of information that runs a high
> probablity of never being used (possibly never).  But it can be turned
> off, so no harm no foul.

But as I mentioned before, it seems to get "reset back" on me all the
time.

I believe the "one directory for everything" approach is best,
especially when combined with a caching network filesystem like AFS,
CODA, etc...

Especially when Microsoft's constant changing of the profiles, lack of
unified profiles for different Windows versions and other details keeps
software writers from using them -- even Microsoft's own application
division.

There has to be something said about the simplicity of an application
being able to simply use " ~/.myapp " and just store everything in
there.

-- TheBS

-- 
Bryan "TheBS" Smith     mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org    chat:thebs413
Engineer   AbsoluteValue Systems, Inc.   http://www.linux-wlan.org
President     SmithConcepts, Inc.     http://www.SmithConcepts.com
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