NetworkManager 1.0 Released After Ten Years Development

An anonymous reader writes: After ten years of development focused on improving and simplifying Linux networking, NetworkManager 1.0 was released. NetworkManager 1.0 brings many features including an increasingly modernized client library, improved command-line support, a lightweight internal DHCP client, better Bluetooth support, VPN enhancements, WWAN IPv6 support, and other features.

Comments

what's wrong with ifconfig?

[Anonymous Coward]

Really, why do we need anything more than ifconfig and ethtool?

Re:what's wrong with ifconfig?

[Anonymous Coward]

So systemd will be bundling Network Manager?

I don't know if it's an out-and-out requirement, but the two packages are very clearly in the same camp.

I stay *far* away from systemd, Network Manager, and PulseAudio. I'm trying to avoid using things like udisks, upower, and Pol(icy)?Kit.

captcha: crimes

Re:what's wrong with ifconfig?

[hobarrera]

On Linux? To connect to WPA2 networks (including WPA2+802.1X). That's an everyday scenario for a pretty much every laptop user.

Sure, you can also do it via cli (with more tools than just those you mentioned), but, do you remember all the steps? Can you teach them to your mum? Can you automate it?

Never heard of it

[gweihir]

And I have been a constant Linux user since 1994. This cannot be too important.

Re:Never heard of it

[SeaFox]

The best software does its job quietly and doesn't need a bunch of attention from the user, allowing your to do your actual work.
Something that seems to be lost on the makers of many other software projects, OSS and commercial.

Re:NetworkManager

[fnj]

All you have to know about the NetworkManager abortion is that you can disable the service and remove the package. Then the operating system's own network configuration files, dhclient and everything, like, actually work as intended and documented.

Re:NetworkManager

[LordLimecat]

As someone who is deeply familiar with networking but only vaguely familiar with Linux's arcane ways of configuring its network-- which apparently change drastically depending on such things as:
  * whether you want it to be per-session (ifconfig)
  * or persistent (/etc/DependsOnYourDistro/someFiles)
  * whether it should actually persist with the interface rather than how the kernel decides to allocate /devs to the actual interface
and so on-- I am quite happy to see NetworkManager. THere is no reason that setting up a bonded or tagged interface should be more complicated than saying it verbally, or why I should have to fall back to CLI in order to do that.

Heres a fun tip: not everyone wants to be a full-time Linux admin devoted to a particular breed of distro. Some of us have a job in supporting a very wide array of systems, and the less arcane black magic we need to learn for each individual system the better. Historically Linux's networking has been AWFUL, as just a few years ago it was considered normal for a box's IP-to-interface mapping change on reboot because apparently its logical that the OS randomly assign interface IDs to physical interfaces, and there were roughly a hundred different methods and places to configure all of the various networking pieces (resolvers, mac addresses, firewall, bonding, vlans, device/interface mapping).

It boggles my mind that there are people who think that complexity for complexity's sake is a good thing. CLI is wonderful for batch operations that you do every day. GUI is wonderful for things you will do once a month, and dont want to use mental bandwidth for remembering a command.