the idea behind this suite of tools is to make the gentoo linux environment more accessible to users that are more comfortable with desktop administration. I personally have used linux more than a year and have built an LFS box, used crux and set up gentoo and can easily use the commandline for administration. but for simple tasks like upgrading packages, i don't always want to get an xterm out. I'm also "set in my ways" -- in terms of usability of a program. guitoo [pronounced gooey-too] tools geared to the desktop environment tools and are written in Qt, mostly concentrating on KDE users, but will be compatible with other DEs (most tools are compiled/made with Qt rather than kdelibs whenever possible) The goal of this project is to provide intuitive graphical user interface applications to aid in the maintenance, configuration and setup of the gentoo linux system. The (planned) set of tools are as follows: guitoo etcetera: (testing/beta phase) mock-up of etcetera an etc-update gui replacement that is geared towards ease of use and compatibility. it is meant to help users update their configuration files quicker and easier then the etc-update and vimdiff combination. It is possible to set pretty much any GUI diff utility that the user chooses, but kompare is recommended. guitoo etcetera also plans on incorporating it's own diff tool based on kompare. download guitoo updater: (pre-alpha. mock-up phase) mock-ups of updater A portage tree sync and merge tool that will "guide" you through the updating process. First it will emerge rsync, then it will offer a list of updated packages (that you can check/uncheck). Next, it will start a merge and wait for a completion. Upon completion, It will give you the option to run etcetera and then you can view the HTML log. veiw the mock-ups for more details. simple. easy. fast. guitoo kortage: (no progress) **planned** guitoo will take over the old kportage development and enhance it's features and maintain the project. One goal is to remove the KDE dependency (if at all possible) to reduce the requirements. guitoo config: (no progress) guitoo config is a tool that will allow a user to configure common /etc/ files from his desktop environment using intuitive dialog boxes with a lot of help and a lot of options. non-programmers will be able to contribute using an easy plug-in like interface and an XML file format. (think <file>/etc/rc.conf</file> <linput name=hostaname>mycomputer</input> ) and perhaps a RAD editor to help the plugin creators. update: most likely, it's backend will be config4gnu. pprogress has started on that project, and I really don't want to duplicate work. guitoo setup: **WISHFUL THINKING** a Qt frontend to GLIS (or similar) that uses all the guitoo technologies to set up a new gentoo box. Think: automation. Now, these are all just ideas floating around in my brain, and I am working on the etcetera and updater atm. Once I feel like I am better capable in C++ I will start on the guitoo portage tool (importing Kportage and retooling it to be better).