On Fri, 3 Oct 2003, vatbier wrote: > Sometimes I log in into KDE as root. When I, being logged in as root, > use Konqueror to surf on the internet
Like HaywireMac, I just don't know where to begin to explain how unwise this practice is ... especially the surfing part; you are giving an app that may or may not be entirely bug-free (and which uses plugins, which also may or may not be entirely bug-free) unlimited power to make *any* change it attempts, to any part of your system, and you then connect that app directly to foreign and untrusted systems which you *know* full well contain code to which that app will respond automatically. Incredible! Makes running with scissors look pretty safe, by comparison ... :) > And to refresh my memory, why is it a bad idea to login as root in KDE? > These days I do a lot of root changes,it's easier for me to stay for a > while in KDE as root than to type my root password everytime I want to > do some root job as a regular user. This has to be the weakest (and, coincidentally, the most common) excuse given for running in the GUI as root, and it's just plain wrong. If you are logged in as root, you are incapable of testing whether or not the change you made will work as you expect it to when running as a user; all you can be certain of at that point is that it works when running as root. You still need to logout, and login as a user, to complete your testing. OTOH, if you are logged in as you should be (as a user), and you open a terminal, "su" to root, and do your configuration from there (or use MCC), the only thing on the desktop that is running as root is that terminal and any apps that are spawned from it; everything else is running as the user, and effective testing of your configuration changes can be immediate. And as for repeatedly typing the root password, the "sudo" app can help there. So, don't even *try* to sell us on the notion that this is somehow easier for you ... the only way that it *is* easier is that it's easier to retain your old Windoze way of thinking, rather than adjust to a different OS and the time-tested *nix sysadmin practices which have worked for decades. Just my $0.02USD ... -- Bill Mullen [EMAIL PROTECTED] MA, USA RLU #270075 MDK 8.1 & 9.0 The engineer is neither optimist nor pessimist. He sees the proverbial half-full/empty glass and says, "The glass is twice as big as there is any need for it to be."
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