On Aug 31, 2015, at 3:52 AM, Markus Armbruster wrote: > Programmingkid <magiccatsoftw...@gmail.com> writes: > >> On Aug 29, 2015, at 12:39 PM, Max Reitz wrote: >> >>> On 29.08.2015 17:57, Programmingkid wrote: >>>> >>>> On Aug 29, 2015, at 11:40 AM, Max Reitz wrote: >>>> >>>>> On 27.08.2015 03:05, G 3 wrote: >>>>>> I want to share files between my host and guest computer. A feature I >>>>>> want to add would be a new menu item in the Machine menu called "Mount >>>>>> Image File...". When the user selects it, a file open dialog box >>>>>> displays. The user can then select the image file with the file he wants >>>>>> to use. After pushing the OK button, the image file would be mounted >>>>>> like a USB flash drive. This menu item would only show up if there is >>>>>> usb support in the guest machine. >>>>>> >>>>>> Would you be open to accepting such a feature? >>>>> >>>>> Generally I'd expect this to be functionality exposed by the management >>>>> layer. For instance using virt-manager, this can be achived as follows: >>>>> Switch to "Details", then click "Add Hardware", choose "Storage" and >>>>> "USB" as the "Bus type". Choose the image, click "Finish", done. >>>> >>>> Isn't Libvirt only available on Linux? This mount image file feature would >>>> only be on Mac OS X. >>> >>> I'm not sure whether that sounds like a good idea, because then people >>> using bare qemu on Linux would complain that it isn't available with >>> Gtk. So if this was to be implemented, it would have to implemented >>> cross-platform (or at least in a way so it can be used cross-platform >>> later on). >> >> If making QEMU more user-friendly is a crime, I plead guilty! >> >> I'm not a Linux user. I am a proud Macintosh user. We Mac users >> like our software easy to use. I know this goes against the Linux >> way of life. That is why this patch would only work on Mac OS X. >> This will keep QEMU on Linux hard to use... just the way you guys >> like it. > > I think you've used up your "speculation on what Linux users like" quota > on this list for 2015. Now let's get back on topic. > > [More snipped...] > >>>>> The main problem I see with adding this functionality to qemu itself >>>>> would be having to get even further into the GUI business, which hasn't >>>>> worked out too well so far… >>>> >>>> That is because of several reasons. One being maintainers not wanting to >>>> advance the GUI because they feel another program should be QEMU's >>>> GUI. I'm sure there are plenty of good ideas that would advance QEMU's >>>> GUI. These ideas just need to be accepted into QEMU rather than put off. >>> >>> Another is that some people simply feel that qemu should focus on being >>> a backend than having to mess with frontend work, too. See the recent >>> discussion on the Gtk code setting the locale and thus breaking QMP for >>> an example why they have a point. >> >> We can have both. Command-line options are there that can turn on or >> off the GUI. >> Example: --disable-gtk. >> >> Ideally I want QEMU's GUI to be similar to VirtualBox's GUI. Doing stuff like >> freezing and restoring a session would be awesome and a real time saver. >> >>> I guess you'll better talk to Markus about this. :-) >>> >>> Quote: "We should've stayed out of the GUI business." >>> >>> (http://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2015-08/msg03049.html) >> >> That is totally fine for the Linux users. If they want to use the >> command-line only, >> let them. They are only hurting themselves :) > > You're attacking a strawman.
I think the word attack is a little strong. We were just having a little informal conversation. Sorry if the Linux jokes weren't so funny. > Nobody is arguing against having a nice > GUI. My argument is that one application trying to do everything tends > to result in the application doing most of it badly. That's what you believe? Are you saying if we do add a few features to the GUI it automatically becomes bad? Isn't that kind of pessimistic? Is all hope gone? Running Virt-manager on Mac OS X isn't currently possible. So my only choice is to advance the GUI. This feature would making transferring files from and to the guest actually easy to do. That sounds like a good idea. This patch would only affect Mac OS X users, so Linux users won't notice a difference. No harm done to them.
