NetworkManager

[Bill Oliver]

On Thu, 2 Jan 2014, Timothy Murphy wrote:

> What has happened to Network Management Settings
> in recent versions of NM?
> Right clicking on the NM icon (in Fedora-20/KDE)
> brings up an unintelligible (to me) window
> with 4 arrows whose function I do not understand.
>
> Also NM is bringing up small "activation/deactivation" windows
> that seem to persist indefinitely unless manually closed.
>
> I wish there were an alternative to NM
> which worked as well as the old Windows "Connect to".
> Basically, I would like a small map showing available access points,
> with the last point accessed chosen by default.
> Clicking on one of the other access points
> would indicate if an encryption key is needed,
> and if so would offer a text area to allow this to be entered.
> There used to be something like this in NM
> (not as simple as Windows but at least usable),
> but this seems to have disappeared.
>
> In my view NM is ludicrously over-complicated,
> and steadily getting more complicated
> as more and more "features" are added.
> I would like a program that just deals with WiFi
> and does not bother with ethernet, VPN, mobile phones, etc,
> all of which in my experience work perfectly well
> with or without NM.
> "A program should do one thing, and do it well."
>
>

Yeah, I don't like it either.  I think it's all part of this general movement to make things "easier" and "user friendly" through removing options and control from the user.

I have little doubt that in a few more iterations, you'll be seeing a Windows 7/8-like "Troubleshoot" button, and if that doesn't work, you are just screwed.

billo