Re: Sensible Computing (TM) [was Re: 2.2.13 - modules - failed dependancies]

[Al Hudson <nospam [at] york.ac.uk>]

On Fri, 31 Mar 2000, Bob Ham wrote:

> > Actually, there's no danger compiling stuff as root as opposed to some
> > other user.
> 
> If you don't know what a Makefile does, there is most definately a
> danger in compilation.

Um, no, not really. There's no reason to be paranoid. Let's face it, that
only matters if you're a sysadmin, in which case this is part of your job
and you know how to do it anyway. For average Joe users on their home
computers, it's a no-brainer - you don't need to worry about it. Because,
unless you know what the the software is, you have no business compiling
it. And I'm not going to run software in sand-box mode just to satisfy
myself that it's okay - that's not foolproof anyhow. If I'm a home user,
it doesn't matter squat if I compile as root, nobody or any other user -
chances are, I'm going to have one user for myself and that's where I do
all my work. If something goes wrong, I've hosed *my* data no matter what.
Okay, if I'm root the system goes with it, but that's not important data.
It only matters when you're in a multiuser system, and as I said, if you
do stuff as root there then you're stupid anyway...

Cheers,

Alex.


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