Go John!
I agree 100% with you!!
-----Original Message-----
From: John Aldrich [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, July 21, 2000 1:29 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [expert] Mandrake's Arrogance
On Fri, 21 Jul 2000, you wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Civileme" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Friday, July 21, 2000 1:34 AM
> Subject: [expert] RIGHT CLICK--NEW -> Folder
>
>
> >
> > Are you folks who are complaining running as _root_?
> >
> > This is something not to be done, for many reasons, including the fact
> that you
> > get kicked from most IRC servers.
> >
>
> I find it arrogant that Mandrake would deliberatly cripple the
functionality
> of programs in order to prohibit certain behavior that they have decided
is
> inappropriate. This kind of "I know better than you" unwelcomed
> paternalistic coercion is awfully Microsoft-ish. Is this the direction
> Mandrake is heading? Yuck!
>
Ok. So Mandrake "cripples" some stuff as root to discourage you from
running as "root." They have also done so in the security levels, and
I don' t hear anyone bitching about MS-like behavior with regards to
functionality of some programs under the "high" and "paranoid"
security levels.
As is pointed out, there is good reason NOT to run as "root." Pretty
much every distro out there will prevent you from telnetting into the
box as "root" for security reasons (at least Mandrake and RedHat
will. I *think* most other distros do as well!)
I think it's a Bad Idea (tm) to cry "microsoft" anytime a linux
distribution "cripples" something for security reasons. I don't hear
anyone bitching about not being able to install RPMs as a user, yet
that's *definitely* an "I know better than you" situation of a
program being crippled.
My $0.02: Shut up and stop running as "root" unless you're actively
configuring stuff which requires "root" permissions. If you just want
to be able to install an RPM or something, open a console window, su
to root and run the rpm installer.
Stop trying to defeat the security that's inherent in linux and run
as a "user!"
John
