Rahul Sundaram wrote: >>>There is a view point that su helpers are a wrong model. >>>http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/portland/2006-April/000384.html >> >>I don't disagree that a better method than su helpers would be ideal >>for desktop and gui users. The problem is that those methods don't >>exist yet and there are more than a few users who would like to do >>things that require root privileges using some sort of gui. > > In that thread itself, there are descriptions about PolicyKit which > is about to be integrated. You'd have to define "about to be integrated" to put it into useful perspective as I don't get a proper sense of the timeframe from reading that thread. (Though the link below on f-u-s does provide that timeframe. :) In any event, it's not available for FC5 and FC6, which most Fedora users are using at the moment (if they aren't using something even older). So, while it will be a good day when users can perform all of the tasks that they want to perform on their systems without needing to run any graphical applications as root, that day is not today. Due to this, some users look to things like gksu which will enable them to run the minimal amount of software as root as they can imaging to get their tasks accomplished. That's a good thing compared to those that give up trying to limit their root exposure (out of frustration or otherwise) and just login to their desktop as root. > See http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Desktop/FastUserSwitching Thanks for the link. I'd followed some of the threads on fedora-devel from the FC5 timeframe to get an understanding of why f-u-s wasn't enable and I agree that the issues warranted that decision. I'm glad to see that much of the work to get there sanely and securely has been achieved. FC7 will be very sweet indeed. -- Todd OpenPGP -> KeyID: 0xBEAF0CE3 | URL: www.pobox.com/~tmz/pgp ====================================================================== The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. -- Frederick Douglass
Attachment:
pgpyetek98w9L.pgp
Description: PGP signature
