Quote:
"If you have anything to do with security in a distro, and think that my kids (replace "my kids" with "sales people on the road" if you think your main customers are businesses) need to have the root password to access some wireless network, or to be able to print out a paper, or to change the date-and-time settings, please just kill yourself now. The world will be a better place," he said.
Torvalds has come in for criticism for not using bypass code in openSUSE to eliminate some of the need for root password access, and has been slammed for taking the rant public.
"I wouldn't call him 'moronic' - he's proven his level of genius. But, it's incredibly juvenile and short-sighted not to see that others may have real-world business related concerns for heightened security on their laptops, and not everyone just tosses their laptop at their daughter to jump on the insecure junior high school networks," posted Texan certified fraud examiner Andy Prough.
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In this rare case, I would have to agree with Andy Prough, and argue against Linus Torvalds.
I would have to agree with Linus that adding a printer and connecting to wifi should NOT require a root password, and it many cases does not ... like if you are using wicd or network manager, etc. Printers are auto-detected and auto-added with newer cups versions from what I see.
The big question comes with "to change the date-and-time settings". This is a serious security issue and I cannot understand why Linus doesn't recognize it as such. I would really like an explanation from him why it isn't a security issue. Changing the date and time can really mess up a system, especially for businesses but even for regular users.
