Questions about Ubuntu

[Jerry Feldman]

On 09/19/2008 10:26 AM, Thomas Charron wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 7:36 AM, Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org> wrote:
>   
>> On 09/18/2008 07:53 PM, Bill McGonigle wrote:
>>     
>>> On Sep 18, 2008, at 10:49, mike ledoux wrote:
>>>       
>>>> What do you need the root password to do in Fedora?
>>>>         
>>> If you run any GUI admin tools it'll ask you for the root password.   This
>>> is a bug, IMNSHO - if the user has sudo rights that should be  sufficient,
>>> with or without a raster display.
>>> Even Apple gets this right.  <-- waves red flag at bulls
>>>       
>> I don't agree that it is a bug. When I first installed Ubuntu, I was used to
>> the root password, and it was confusing for a while.
>>     
>
>   However, if you can do anything root can do without it asking for a
> password explicity, one has to ask..  Why not just run as root at that
> point.  If there is no isolation, and anything you need to have admin
> privs to do can be done by users in a certain 'group'....
>
>   Well, I suppose it means anyone with admin rights would at least be
> able to have different desktops. *shrug*
>
>   
Essentially, Ubuntu uses sudo. So, when a desktop user with admin rights 
wants to do something that requires root access, the user's password is 
requested, not the root password.

There are a lot of reasons you do not want to run as root for normal 
operations.

-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
PGP key id: 537C5846
PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB  CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846


-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 251 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
Url : http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/private/gnhlug-discuss/attachments/20080919/199320fd/attachment.bin