for everyone whose sick of sudo read this

[irusun]

Brian Puccio Wrote: 
> 

> So you wouldn't mind then if I, or someone far less honest, had access

> to your computer?  You don't do any online banking?  You don't
> purchase

> anything online?  You have nothing on your computer that you wouldn't

> mind being public?

> 

> If so, fine, security is of no concern to you.  But for those of us
> who

> use their computers for the above reasons, and possibly even work,

> security IS an issue.

> 

> What everyday tasks?  I consider checking my email, talking to
> friends,

> typing up a school paper and playing some wesnoth and everyday task.

> Any time I need a password for anything, I know its something that
> could

> break the system.  I can't inadvertently break the system without

> sudo'ing.

> 

> I must have missed the "fun with root" o'reilly book.  FWIW, the fact

> that the default windows user has admin privs is one of the reasons
> that

> the spyware propagates so well on windows platforms.  Even the MS

> evangelist, Scoble, says that running as admin on windows is not a

> bright idea:

> 

> I'll jump on the band-wagon and say that if you need to login as root

> for anything other then a single command or two, you're probably doing

> something wrong.

This is exactly the kind of over reacting that is the problem. 
Security of my on-line banking, my on-line purchases, my private files
have nothing to do with root user.  What are you even talking about? 
This isn't a discussion about whether security or file privileges are a
good thing - it's about whether logging into root is this terrible, bad
thing that should never be done that a number of people are making it
out to be.



The reason spyware and viruses propagates so well on the Windows
platform is because many users don't have a freaking clue what they're
doing.  For those users, it's probably best that they not only not log
into root, but that they don't have access to sudo either.



For the majority of of us whose every day (or every week - whatever it
is...) tasks include adjusting the time and date, editing fstab,
editing grub, installing new applications, installing a nvidia driver,
compiling a kernel, setting up a new user for a spouse, and so on -
it's no big deal to log in as root user when you want to.  If you've
never had the need to log in as a root user, you probably never -have-
done anything more than check your email, type a paper, or play a
game.



Once again, I don't have any problems with the way Ubuntu is set up - I
think it's rather elegant overall.  But trying to frighten people into
not using root is just plain FUD.  If you don't want to log in as root,
then don't.  If you think it will make things easier when doing tasks
that need root privileges, then go ahead. I just don't like to see this
kind of moronic drumbeat about how logging in as root is going to
compromise and eventually destroy your system.


-- 
irusun