Re: [Sheflug] How To Saga

[Peter Collier <pecb [at] xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thursday 04 Aug 2005 10:25, Ted Harding wrote:
> On 02-Aug-05 Alec Melling wrote:

> > There is of course a problem. I am using Kubuntu which as you
> > may or may not know does not have a root account. You use sudo or
> > kdesu to get things done.
> >
snip
> > Alec Melling
>
> Regardless of the outcome of Alec's saga (and I do hope it works out!)
> I find myself very surprised at Ubuntu for not having a root account!
>
> I'd been thinking of giving Ubuntu a whirl, having heard good things
> of it, but I can't imagine running any unixoid system which doesn't
> have root. I don't see that sudo (pseudo?) solves it. The presence
> of "root" is deeply embedded in the design of Unix, therefore also
> Linux, and there must be vast arrays of programs that directly
> or indirectly depend on the assumption that root exists.
>
snip
> And I'm also very puzzled as to why Ubuntu (or any other distribution)
> should think it's a good idea to have no root. What is gained? Surely
> what is lost has to be made good by some complicated tangle of
> work-arounds, with the risk of setting up various Catch-22s within
> this tangle.
>
> Is it perhaps the idea that vapourising root will make Ubuntu more
> "friendly" to folk like Windows users whose minds don't quite grasp
> the idea of a privileged user? (Mind you, if that's the objective,
> then the simple solution is to have just one user, root, though
> you can call it something else, e.g. "alec", if you like!).
>
> Any comments?
>
> Best wishes to all,
> Ted.
>
>
Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm sure when I also brought up a similar comment 
about Ubuntu, someone, somewhere pointed out to me that the MAC O'S also runs 
the user as sudo to get root privileges. I too didn't like the idea.

Peter C.
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