[OT] Debian mailinglists [was: RE: Debian or Ubuntu?]

[Florian Diesch]

"Steve Lamb" <grey at dmiyu.org> wrote:

> On Thu, May 22, 2008 8:13 am, Florian Diesch wrote:
>> "Steve Lamb" <grey at dmiyu.org> wrote:
>>>     Nope.  Because sudo certainly isn't needed on a single-user system.
>
>> If you don't want to work as root all the time you really want some
>> simple way to run a command as root. Using sudo instead of su  makes
>> it a little bit easier as you don't have to remember two passwords.
>
>     There isn't many times that I want to run *a* command as root.  Often I
> want to run a *sequence* of commands which require the elevated
> privileges of root to remain for the entire sequence.  

For me it's different, usually I'm using sudo for just one command
(or have aliases for the more frequently used sequences).

For most GUI-only users sudo (or its frontends like gksudo) is what
they want: GUI for calls from the menu, sudo for copied CLI commands.


> sudoing to root and suing to root is functionally identical thus
> sudo is not needed.

Functionally sudo is a superset of su



>> By default Ubuntu gives sudo access to everyone in the admin group. No
>> editing needed in your example.
>
>     Presumes everyone is going to be in the admin group.  The point of sudo
> is limiting elevated privileges to specific commands.  Since that is
> going to be unique per user editing will be required.

Per default it just all or nothing, like su. having all the admin
users in the admin group seems to be sensible.


>     Look, I'm not saying that sudo should be removed or that the Ubuntu use
> of sudo isn't convenient in some cases.  I am just pointing out that as
> an example by Derek of a configuration tool "doing the right thing" it
> is spurious precisely because it isn't needed in the vast majority of
> installs where such niceties would be "needed".

I disagree with Derek in most points but here he's IMHO right: Maybe
it's not what the vast majority needs, but it's  fine for the vast
majority, even if something less flexible would be fine, too.


Sometimes GUI front ends or automatic config tools do the right thin
for the vast majority. But of course there should be something for the
minorities, too.


   Florian
-- 
<http://www.florian-diesch.de/>
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