I would like to echo comments from Jerry Lawson, Leonard Boyle, and Mike
Stewart about the .5 PTF level for the Windows client. I especially want
to agree with Jerry that the .5 client is not useable at our site because
of the poor way that it was packaged.
I really thought that ADSM was a cut above other IBM products, but when it
comes to installing software, they really just don't have a clue. What I
want (and I suspect others as well - feel free to chime in, folks) is a
very simple installation process. As simple as I can get it. I want
it for my hundreds of users, not for myself. My users do not use the
admin client, nor do they use the API. They all use TCP/IP, and they
all talk to the same ADSM server. Win95 users don't need to see all
the stuff about WinNT (and vice versa). They DO NOT NEED TO KNOW ABOUT
ALL THE *#$% THAT IS IN THE README FILE AND THE OPTIONS FILE. Some of
it is relevant, but most of it is not.
In the past, I have been able to customize this for our users, to eliminate
the *#$% in the readme file, and to pre-customize the dsm.opt file (as much
as possible). All they really need to do is to specify their ADSM nodename,
and review the include/exclude list, and perhaps the default DOMAIN. Now
with this new, wonderful installation tool that is used by the .5 PTF level,
I can no longer do this. The README file is now multiple files. It's just
gotten really out of hand.
Please take this as a requirement: Customers need to be able to customize
the installation process for their own users. Please provide installation
tools that allow for this.
We had developed user installation documentation that walks our users through
the install process. Because the installation tool has changed (yet again)
this documentation is now wrong. I will point out that IBM's own "Installing
the Clients" manual is also now wrong because it does not match what the
new install tool does. The old tool had a step that allowed the user to
edit their dsm.opt file, whereas the new tool does not seem to.
Paul Zarnowski Phone: 607/255-4757
Cornell Information Technologies Fax: 607/255-6523
Cornell University US Mail: 315 CCC, Ithaca, NY 14853-2601
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