On 29/08/02 10:48, "Jon Glass" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > on 8/29/02 2:53 PM, Laurent Daudelin at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >> That being said, I don't see what is really different when you boot in >> auto-login mode. Specially if you're the admin. You can pretty toss >> everything everywhere you want and mess up the system pretty badly. > > Ok, so, what is the difference between "root" and "admin?" For what do you > need "root" that you cannot do otherwise. (In other words, what is root > necessary for?) Is it still necessary to go to the CLI to do some things in > Jaguar? Why does this all even exist in the MacOS anyway? I mean, I don't > really care for myself. I can learn anything, but my question is why should > I want to, and why would I have to? I feel that, like Windows, the user has > been pushed one level away from the system itself. What I always preferred > about the Mac over Windows was that you weren't working with things that > merely represented something else, but with the items themselves. You didn't > have program groups, and silly things like that (Win 3), nor did you have to > manipulate things that merely pointed to the real files, but you manipulated > the files themselves. I get the impression sometimes, that X has gone to the > old Windows way of doing things. This has been one of my reasons for not > forking out the dough for X. (Others include loosing access to my Newton, > having to get a bigger hard drive, having to purchase a new copy of Word or > Office and some other software, plus, Nisus isn't out on X yet.) > > Frankly, this business about users--root, admin, etc, have been rather of a > sore spot for me. They scream out to me that my computer is not really mine, > but that I'm only allowed to do what the MCP says I can. ;-) > > In any case, a bit of clarification would come in handy. :-)
The 'root' user is a remnant of Unix. That's why it's disabled in OS X when you initially install it. It's the owner of the machine. A lot of background process runs under root. You had the same thing under the old Mac OS. The Finder, the system extensions, all of this was running in some kind of supervisor mode. It's just that with the old OS, things were not clearly defined, like it is in Unix. The admin user, as I understand it, have all privileges to administer the machine, remove files or change settings as they see fit. It's close to the 'root' user. The admin users have pretty much the same privileges. However, there are certain things they won't be able to do. Like, they won't be able to kill some background processes that are owned by root. You wouldn't want to kill the kernel, for instance, because your machine would stop working. So, there are other processes or, in the Unix world 'daemons', that are running behind the scene. Network, file sharing and other things like that are run under root. They are needed by the OS and, as such, they shouldn't be killed. That's what I like with OS X. Things are more clearly defined and you cannot, even with an admin account, mess up with the machine. On the old Mac OS, you could mess around the system folder to a point where the machine wouldn't boot. That's bad. In OS X, you cannot do that. Everything under 'System' is not writeable, for good reason. Now, I can understand that for someone new to Unix, these things sound a bit like unnecessary. I think that Apple did a pretty good job at hiding the Unix underpinnings of OS X. But I still think that some improvements could be made. For a casual user, there is no need to mess around authorizations, user accounts, or the command line interface. However, as soon as you start sharing your computer a bit or want to use it as some sort of server, like a web server, then you have to be fairly familiar with Unix, because there are always tweaking required. Again, for a casual user, there is no need to do that. So, if you're the only user of your Mac, just leave it in auto-login mode. You won't see much difference than with the old Mac OS. I personally turned off auto-login into my account, on my PowerBook, even if I'm the only user of that machine, for security reason. I just want to make it harder for a potential thief to access the content of my hard disk. Granted, if somebody knows a bit about Mac OS X, they can get around this pretty easily. Apple should, BTW, make it harder to reset the admin password. But, again, for the casual thief, it might not thrill them if they start the machine and get to a login screen... -Laurent. -- =========================================================================== Laurent Daudelin Developer, Multifamily, ESO, Fannie Mae mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Washington, DC, USA ************************* Usual disclaimers apply ************************* fiber-seeking backhoe: [common among backbone ISP personnel] Any of a genus of large, disruptive machines which routinely cut critical backbone links, creating Internet outages and packet over air problems. -- G-Books is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-Books list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
