[Peep-develop] peep's popularity problems

[xavier r. <lis...@na...>]

Hi,

I had a talk with Mike that i'd like to report here...

(01:18:54) node3667: we need to think about why peep is not a success if we want it do be more used...
(01:19:54) magilfix: There are definitely a lot of people that have tried the software and I think it was a success just because it got people thinking
(01:22:43) node3667: i really think peep is good software
(01:23:16) node3667: but it looks like only sysadmin who have too much time in their hands are using it
(01:24:03) magilfix: Cool. I think a lot of people are messing around with it.. I'm just not sure whether it's really taken off. It's hard to tell because when you do a good job, you tend not to hear about it from the general population :)
(01:24:49) node3667: hum, i don't know, i really think i would generate more traffic on mls
(01:25:13) node3667: peep is not (maybe it's part of the problem) a trivial tool
(01:25:26) magilfix: I agree.. We were working on making it easier to configure

(01:26:08) node3667: right now i already find it easy to configure
(01:26:27) node3667: that's the stuff about deployement, communication which is a hassle
(01:26:56) magilfix: Well, send us any suggestions :)

First, i really think we shouldn't start mimicing netsaint/nagios
(ie no email....)

i'm using nagios and it's doing a pretty good job. no need to come
up with something that would do half his job and integrated 
with something that do realtime analysis.

and i believe this were peep is good : real time monitoring.
i believe this is the niche for peep. 

2 problems (maybe?) with peep :

- setting up the communication channels between hosts
part of the hassle is that for peep to work,
we need a peep client on each machine. 
means managing multiple peep configs, maybe it implies cvs....

we should advertise the network values of syslog on 
the doc. it looks far easier to set up a syslog server
that deploying peep around. the network possibilities
of peep are really really nice though, and we need to
keep that. sometimes syslog is not possible. (i think
traffic monitoring here, between others...)


- using sound 
we need to ease the processing. not many sound cards
thoses days accept multiple locks on /dev/dsp,
so we need to make it work with alsa and/or esd.
fyi, i'm using esd on my machines thoses days.
ppl don't want their /dev/dsp clogged all day by a program.
ppl want their im/irc alert working. (talking to much about
my self maybe ;-)

and i don't know, maybe our culture is to much sight-centric,
not really audiophile... audio is for entertainement (think
music) when i explain peep to people, they're smiling
when they learn that peep is sound based. 
"realtime monitoring tool" sounds cool. this is peep.
maybe ppl don't believe in sound. they believe in 
popups. blinking. visual. another power of peep
is that it's investigating another field yet
unutilized professionaly speaking : the ear.
(sound like i'm selling the lastest nonexistant dot com product.)
(our product is based on a totally unexploited technology,
multiply your productivity  !!)

may be a visual output plugin might be a hooker for people ?
see attached file to see what i mean. sound would appear
like drops of rain, left and right for left and right ear.
real time, say 10 fps / sec
i don't know how to do that (using the screensaver rain ?
using winamp plugins ? look for something else ?)
but i'm thinking that if we do it, we need to do it 
fast. like to come up with something in 1 day or less... 
this is a teaser. a hooker for ppl.
no need to loose time on it. 

may be another problem is that our closest competitor,
netsaint/nagios, is already filling the niche...
reports, availability, the power of nagios is logging and
retaining information. 

we can ask ourself the question : what does peep brings to 
ppl that nagios doesnt ?

- coolness factor

- realtime (i'm searching for a situation where it's needed, but 
i can't find one)

- audio usage (could be counter productive at first, though i think
it's the best choice made)

thoses 3 items are not enough. peep is not plug and play so
it doesn't help. we need to find "real advantages,
necessities" to "market" peep.



what do you think ?

cheers,

-- 
xavier renaut