On Mon, 24 Jan 2005 18:04:31 +0000, James Wilkinson <james@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > M.Rudra wrote: > > > Currently I use FC-1 and also have a dual boot machine with win-XP. > > My question : > > I have not programmed with Linux, but would like to. So if i create a > > seperate *user* and download any linux application under development > > to fiddle with, will it crash my dual boot or linux box ? > > I had read a few articles/blogs about problems with > > testing/programming on a dual booting FC and XP machine. I dont want > > that problem :-) as i wouldnt know how to fix it. > > This is my home PC - I use it for regular stuff (music, email, > > browsing, office apps, other stuff...) and yet I want it to be > > stable.... > > Very short answer: No. > > Short answer: It depends, but probably not. > > Long answer: If you're doing kernel mode programming, X sever > programming, or anything that needs privileged access to hardware, then > all bets are off. But it doesn't sound as though you're ready for that, > yet, and you'd know if you were doing it. > > If you run your programs as root, then there is the chance for those > programs to trash your system. > > Otherwise, the very worst that you can do is trash your user files. And > the chance of that, normally, is very remote. > > Unix (except in the early versions), and Linux (and Windows XP, come to > that) have memory management. They use the MMU and "privileged modes" in > the processor to ensure that normal programs can't fiddle with memory > that they're not supposed to access. This means that they can't crash > the entire OS, or get around the filesystem's permission flags. > > It would be very impressive to produce a program bug that could trash > user files unrelated to the program, unless you were playing around with > "find" and "rm" type functionality. But as you imply, if you do > development and testing as a separate user, and if you've got the > permission flags set appropriately (which they should be for /home, but > check any shared directories or vfat mounts), then even such a bug will > only affect the development user. thanks James ...both answers are reassuring for a non-geek like me. and i am definitely not geared for kernel programing or anything that demanding. I switched to linux first out of curiosity. The system has a partition and allows access to windows via linux but as root (is that safe ?...not sure about user's. ?- how do i find out ?) If i create a *User* for testing packages what options should i turn off and what permission flags need to be set. I am not conversant with command line interfaces so any links to finding that info is also useful. Do they differ for each package/program ? -- MR
