[Sugar-devel] [FEATURES][DESIGN] Network proxy configuration

[Daniel Drake]

On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 2:27 PM, Anish Mangal <anish at activitycentral.org> wrote:
> I'd like to propose "Network proxy configuration in Sugar"
>
> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Proxy_configuration

I would say that this feature does not fit particularly nicely with
some items of our guidelines:
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Policy#Things_you_should_consider_when_proposing_a_feature

In other words, I can't imagine every 6-12 year old student in a
school going into the control panel and typing (without error) a load
of proxy details. In my experience things like this are incredibly
challenging especially because the users cannot relate to the task at
hand (unless you want to teach them about computer networks first).

A more sensible model would be that this is somehow automated by the
deployer or by the school infrastructure, such that the user is not
distracted and does not have to care.


I'm aware that such generalizations can't be applied to all cases and
that this feature is probably driven by some users where this indeed
can't be applied. So I'm not in opposition to this feature (even
though it would be nice to have the more automated approach designed
as well), but I think we need to consider the implications on our more
"regular" target userbase.

For example, what happens if a user who is on a proxy-free network
types "hello" into the proxy configuration textbox? Does that break
all networking?

One problem that I have seen in various places, children untick the
"Radio enable" checkbox in Sugar's control panel and then return their
laptop for repair because they can't get online. I fear that proxy
configuration could become support headache like this.

Daniel