On June 30, 2001 02:43 pm, you wrote:
<SNIP>
> After getting mightily annoyed at having to run "su" in a console or run
> Super User file managers or give my root password time after time in
> order to run Mandrake Control Center or other root-only utilities, I now
> log in all the time as root. Before the geekoids on the list warn me of
> my impending eternal damnation,<g> let me explain my reasoning:
>
> I am the sole user. I am thus both root and judy (the only user). If I
> want to do something that will affect the all-important system files,
> I'm going to do it whether I'm logged in as user or root. So working as
> user does nothing but make me jump through more hoops to do what I'm
> going to do anyway. Why not avoid the hassle and work as root all the
> time? One password per session and no consoles for "su"-ing, I can
> unmount my Zip disks at will, I can deal with all files in all file
> managers, I can edit what I need to, I can install programs without
> problems.
>
> See, these "security features" can't stay the way they are if Linux is
> to attract even the Mac's share of the desktop market. Home business and
> consumer users will react the way I did
> and just get fed up and abandon Linux if they have to go through these
> endless permissions, logins, and passwords to manage their systems. In a
> home system, you're constantly installing or upgrading software or
> making changes to your display or your hardware. Any consumer GUI has to
> accommodate such usage, which is nothing at all like what a larger
> network requires.
<begin sarcastic comment>
Perhaps you should forward your comments to Microsoft in order to save their
impending doom on the desktop due to implementing the very same super user
concept in their NT based operating systems.
<end sarcastic comment>
Restricted super user authority is a hallmark of *NIX, and is one of the
primary reasons it is so stable. Microsoft recognized this when they went to
work on NT, and carried on w/ the practice thorugh Win2k. Regardless of the
crap coming w/ XP one major advancement is the same multi-user/permission
based concept. The bottom line is that the majority of PC users who claim to
be proficient know jack, and need to be protected from themselves more than
anything else. This is one of the primary reasons our company deploys Win2k
on the desktop - to stop users from trashing their systems, and then
requiring us to fix their mistakes. We promote the very same practice to
home users in order to prevent kids, or other family members from installing
some piece of hellware that guts Windows.
Don't hold your breath waiting for Linux distributors to remove su, and
permission based file structures. Not only would such a distro be non POSIX
compliant, no self respecting *NIX vendor would abuse such a time proven and
effective model.
If this concept had of been implemented in the 9x line of products (even
though the underlying technology is absolute junk) I can hardly imagine how
astronomical the world wide productivity gains would have been over the past
seven years - compared to what has actually transpired.
Considering you just started using *NIX I guess it isn't fair to expect you
to fully understand, and respect the benefits of POSIX. However, I will bet
a dime to a dollar that if you continue using *NIX, and don't respect it's
structure you will end up w/ an unstable operating system just like Win 9x.
<SNIP>
Regards,
SpeedMan
