Another reason to prefer a real root over sudo

[Chris G]

On Mon, Feb 02, 2009 at 05:25:49AM -0700, Karl F. Larsen wrote:
> Chris G wrote:
> > I have just discovered another reason why I don't like sudo.
> >
> > I have just installed xubuntu 8.10 on my wife's machine (to replace XP).
> > It has accounts for me and her and the children.  My account has sudo
> > privileges. 
> >
> > When I want to install something I have to log out the current user
> > (if it's not me) then log in as me, then I can run synaptic.  If it
> > had a root account I could simply run synaptic and give the root
> > password. 
> >
> > OK, it's not a disaster and there are several ways around the issue, I
> > could give my wife's account sudo privileges or I could use apt-get from
> > the command line (having changed user to me).  However none of them is
> > particularly covenient and it's a pain if I want to install something
> > to fix an immediate 'on screen' problem.
> >
> >   
>     Sounds to me like your wife or child wants to adjust their OWN 
> computer, thank you.

I quite agree in principle, however I was doing this at the stage of
setting up the computer for a 'ubuntu naive' user so at least
initially it made sense for me to do some things.

> There is no reason they can't be given sudo and let them do it. Why is 
> it better to use "su" and become root?
> 
If you have a root account synaptic asks for the root password and
will work on a GUI being run by a non sudo privileged account.

-- 
Chris Green