LinuxQuestions.org
Visit Jeremy's Blog.
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Distributions > Linspire/Freespire
User Name
Password
Linspire/Freespire This Forum is for the discussion of Linspire and Freespire.

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 03-28-2006, 09:26 AM   #16
CloudyWizzard
Member
 
Registered: Jul 2004
Location: Belgium
Distribution: Debian Squeeze
Posts: 194

Rep: Reputation: 31

Well the "run as root" is a big discussion, even at the Linspire forums. There are people who feel like you (I'm one of the people who also thinks running as Root is a bad thing).
But AFAIK they offer a choice to add a normal user account during installation. The only difference now is that Linspire doesn't "Force" you to make a useraccount and run as a user.
If you don't want to run as root on Linspire you can just create a useraccount.

The "force to run as root" isue has been around for a long time on Linspire an I guess it will never be fixed since Linspire doesn't see a problem with it. Like you said it's the way the Windows users would expect it to be.

But even running as normal user wouldn't make the system safe for a n00b. I've heard some people advise people who run as root on IRC, to execute "rm -rf /" or something like that to "fix" a problem. Now this n00b wil follow this "advise" but if the same person tells them to execute "su root" and then give the root/administrator (Linspire calls it Aministrator not Root) password and THEN execute the rm -rf / command the user will also do this (since the don't know better).

Offcourse a "user" would be safer from accidental deletion of certain key files and other distructive things.

It's a balance between useability and safety they need to find and mostly when you make it safer it becomes less usable (from a windows user point of view, since they don't want to use a Command-line, enter a password to install a program, ...).

Oh, also Linspire feels the root vs. user is a "legacy" from the past when there were multiple users on a system but since most systems have only 1 user anymore they feel the need of multiple accounts is less important as before.
 
Old 03-30-2006, 04:25 AM   #17
Arkerless
Member
 
Registered: Mar 2006
Distribution: Give me Slack or give me death.
Posts: 81

Rep: Reputation: 60
A big problem with run as root is not someone typing the wrong thing at the command line, it's them naïvely downloading and running some random program. This happens all the time with windows machines, as anyone that supports them knows, and it's something you can count on happening with the target audience linspire goes for. It's not such a problem now, perhaps, as they aren't such a big target, but that could easily change.

It doesn't even have to be malware, either, an inadvertant bug in a program can do a lot more damage when run as root.

Apple makes OSX work in a way that's plenty friendly without being so wide-open as 'run as root' - the first user account is automatically 'administrator' which doesn't mean root but rather that it's cleared to sudo, programs that require root access can still be run without much fuss, but there's a notification there where the user has to willingly give them that access. Without calling for sudo, and getting approval, it's still functioning as a normal user account, and the user is shielded from the possibility of hosing the whole system accidentally.

There are graphical sudo tools aplenty for linux, so a similar setup should be quite easy to achieve.

The problem with having an *optional* user account creation is that the folks that most NEED the protection are exactly the ones that won't know to do that.

And I beg to differ that most systems today have just one user - they may have just one human user (although that is actually rare) but they still have system functions running that should be under special accounts. You could make a great 'noob proof' system by simply running a regular cron'd backup of ~/ somewhere that the user account can't access... but I'm rambling.

Anyway, my two cents, run-as-root is evil, and I'd seriously steer folks away from any system that encourages that... the more 'noob' they are, the worse a disaster waiting to happen that would be.
 
  


Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Linspire 4.5 Operating System Free at Linspire.com shmude Linspire/Freespire 9 11-13-2004 06:47 PM
Honestly pashiewashie Linux - Games 4 05-06-2004 07:32 AM
Iptable seems flawed (DNAT) pembo13 Linux - Networking 2 09-24-2003 06:46 PM
Honestly...where's libttf.so? bvc Linux From Scratch 4 04-25-2003 08:44 AM
Honestly...what would u do magyartoth Linux - Networking 8 04-30-2002 05:29 PM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Distributions > Linspire/Freespire

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 10:33 PM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration