sudo: what is the point?

[Hudson Delbert J Contr 61 CS/SCBN]

eric,

	sorry, i dont agree that access to the command line ui
	should be limited	at all. 

	okay soapbox time again...so if you dont wanna' hear click
	the delete key now....

	1.	ubuntu IS NOT and HOPEFULLY will NEVER BE a clone of OSx
		WinDoze.

	2.	IT is a UNIX clone which means that first and foremost
		a workbench/toolkit so such limitations immediately fly
		in the face of unix most compelling attributes in that
		if it doesnt work or doesnt exist, then one can construct
		his own 'better mousetrap'. stifling creativity and
imagination
		are certainly not hallmarks of *nix systems and i hope in
its
		seemingly urgent call by (mostly new linux) users to conform
to
		most pavlovian 'point-n-click' mentality.

	i think the cmdline ought to be exist as it is and those who know
how
	and/or interested in learning how should be free to do just.

	[i.e.   under win2k or winxploder, cmd is available to anyone who
wants
			to use it. the appropriate permissions still exist
at cmd level
			so if the user isnt capable of doing so from the gui
then he wont be
			from the cmd either]

~piranha 

		


-----Original Message-----
From: ubuntu-users-bounces at lists.ubuntu.com
[mailto:ubuntu-users-bounces at lists.ubuntu.com]On Behalf Of Neil Woolford
Sent: Sunday, November 28, 2004 4:49 AM
To: Eric Dunbar
Cc: ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
Subject: Re: sudo: what is the point?


At 16:19 27/11/04, Eric Dunbar wrote:
>You should only have to access the CLUI if
>you're doing things that the majority of users don't need.

And therefore it should be possible to use the users/groups gui
interface to:

>1. allow a full admin to set a user flag, "Allow user to administer
>computer" (i.e. add user to sudoers with ALL=(ALL) ALL; Mac OS X uses
>this);

Yes, I was very surprised to be needing to edit /etc/sudoers to achieve
this.
Visudo works well but is hardly friendly.


>3. (idea) have a (GUI-based) option to allow a pseudo-admin to create
>users with equal and/or lesser priviledges (and, you could even limit
>the accounts said user could create to lesser privs only for e.g., and
>perhaps even to force such accounts to expire after a set period).
>This would allow an admin to delegate user-creation to users who are
>otherwise computer ignoramuses (e.g. department heads, secretaries,
>designated departmental individuals, etc.), without sacrificing
>security/system stability in the process. And, this process would
>allow some users to create temporary accounts for visitors which
>automagically disppear after a specified period, and, thus don't end
>up cluttering up the system.

Yes, that then gives some 'granularity' to privileges, matching them to the
user.  It's all there in the underlying OS, just hard to get at for now.

I too would like to see such things added to an 'advanced' section of the
users/groups gui.

Neil



>(& please, can we keep the Linux chauvinism to a minimum. Just because
>something is implemented in OS X (a *nix-like, mixed-OSS/proprietary
>OS) or  Windows (non-*nix) doesn't mean that it couldn't improve the
>Linux/Ubuntu computing experience)

True.  Though I do sometimes wonder at apparent attempts to clone the 
experience
of using major existing programs;  easy for people transferring between 
systems, but
not really moving anyone forward.


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