Comment 495 for bug 1

Hi, Saïvann Carignan.

You wrote: "It may be also very simple to just add a more comprehensive dialog in that windows during the upgrade process like this "The customized configuration file '/etc/default/apache2' is about to be replaced. This file can contain your preferences and the way you configured one of your programs. If you choose to replace the file by the new one, you may have to configure again this program. Do you want to replace this configuration file for the new one?""

This is the off-kilter mindset I was trying to explain throughout my post. The words "configuration file" have no meaning to a novice user. Novice users know nothing of Apache, or grep, or gij, or kernels, or vertical refresh rates, or /var/logs, or xterm ... and nor should they!

You can explain up the wahzoo what "configuration file" means. You can explain what "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" means. (1) People don't care. (2) People want something that "just works". (3) It wastes their time. (4) People should not need to know. (5) People abhor technical minutia.

There is nothing you can do, nothing at all, to make that "Configuration File Changed" window correct. The whole idea behind it is fundamentally flawed.

And it's the idea that gave birth to such a window that underlies the mindset I am trying to highlight. That mindset needs to grow, must shift from a focus on the needs of the technical elite to the needs of the novice -- without forgetting the us uber-geeks. It's a challenge. It won't be easy. But you folks are clever.

Do you understand?