For what it's worth, Linux does tend to put an "always root" user at a number of disadvantages. (Or maybe these are Fedora features?) 1. My screen saver will not work on the root account. The screen saver refuses to load, and the "helps" specifically state that the screen saver does not run for the root user. 2. Those of us who partition our systems to allow multiple mount points almost never set up "/root" as a separate mount point. Instead we set up "/home" as a separate mount point (and typically let it take "all the rest" of the system). Thus, it behooves any user to have a "limited" account in which to do all his work. That said, I get irritated when, while running a Windows system, I install a game that won't run on any account unless that account has administrative privileges. Fortunately, my current target market consists of businessmen who are less interested in games or music or video downloads and more interested in word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, database, and other productivity applications--and also in groupware and secure browsing, all of which Fedora handles practically straight out of the box. Thanks to Alexander for the suggestions about system security. That's why I've recommended it to my biggest business client. Temlakos On Tue, 2004-10-05 at 13:21, Trevor Smith wrote: > On October 5, 2004 1:57 pm, Alexander Dalloz wrote: > > > You could try to explain them, that Linux has a very different "design" > > and a working user rights management. Of course there are too enough > > people using Linux (mainly unexperienced? certainly untrained) and > > working much too much as root. Well, on the one side you can't > > This will likely be the larger problem in the future as more people become > linux users: not that virus writers will target us more, but that many > (most?) of the new linux users will be as uneducated as they are now, while > they're using Windows. > > People will set up their systems to always run as root and they'll gravitate > toward programs (because of the flash they provide) that allow integration of > apps (read: insecurity), etc. > > In other words, at least part of the "security" of the linux community now is > that linux users, in general, take more time to read and understand their > systems, and proper security for those systems. The majority of windows users > buy their computer, turn it on and say, "how do I download music?" and never > look at anything else. > > When and if they migrate to linux, and when and if the big box stores start > packaging linux, it will be (almost) as insecurely installed, configured and > used as Windows is today, I predict.
