this is not the sudo debate you were looking for

[Paul O'Malley]

Hi all,

This subject is touchy enough, it is NOT about giving root a password, 
of if you should use sudo please keep in mind it is broader.

It is a bit like someone asking for a program in main or universe and 
then being given compiling instructions for it.
First up they should be told about synaptic package manager and how to 
add the universe repo.
You would not advise someone who was creating a mission critical machine 
to build it on the ubuntu+1 version.
This is about doing things the way they are designed.

I don't do forums however a particular post was brought to my attention, 
in it, it says:
sudo passwd root
Whereas the route to root this is well known:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RootSudo
What gets me is the same person used "sudo $everything" in an earlier 
post to do more or less the same job.
Can this be changed and if so how?

In my opinion that things like this just confuse new users and causes 
problems for some of them.
However this is no debate about what any person may do personally to 
their own machine, this question is about advising new users and a 
consistent message.

In the mailing lists, distro docs, the irc channels, wiki, and other web 
channels to the new user, I think they encourage people to do things the 
way Ubuntu is designed to work. In this I feel that there is a certain 
level of QA needed. If anyone is helping a new user a bit and not there 
for all the hand holding they need being different in your instruction 
from others is hardly a good service, to me this kind of thing reflects 
in a negative way on all of the Ubuntu experience. Can we talk about this?

Regards,

Paul O'Malley