2012/2/8 Anne Wilson <[email protected]>: > On Wednesday 08 February 2012 15:13:57 Anne Wilson wrote: >> Yes, I have seen postings like "why do I have to use passwords" and >> "why can I not log in KDE as root" more than once. Are these people >> our target group? If so than - have fun! What strikes me is that you >> of all people are advocating a loosening of security with no real >> reason. > > I do not want to have to give the root password to members of my family that > are, frankly, clueless on tech-matters. At the same time, I do want them to > apply at least security updates. Being able to accept updates from a trusted > source (direct from Mageia) with only their user password is the safest their > systems can have.
I understand the reasons. But you know as well as everybody else that sometimes updates do not work as easy as they should. It could be caused by a faulty mirror or by a glitch in a package (which should not happen but "should not happen" implies "can happen") or whatever other reason. Then your family members will wait for you anyway (in the best case) without knowing what happened - while they could have been happily working or entertaining themselves until you come and do the updates. Apart from the understandable quest to make it easy on the unwashed masses - it is still a security break - see what I have written about the ability of xguest to do updates (while xguest was invented to leave the system without garbage or damage at the end of his/her session). -- wobo
