Oliver:
A thought on the "xsane as root" business: If you are going to try and
restrict people's use of "root" for xsane because it is too dangerous,
then don't you think you should try to convince everyone who writes
software for Linux to follow the same philosophy? Think about such
things as file managers and tell me that they aren't more dangerous than
a (potentially) defective scanner program. If you are concerned about
someone giving you are hard time over some lost files, then I suggest
you consider a couple of facts: 1. every one who uses xsane at this
stage is aware of the fact that it still in development and 2. How can
you be held responsible the side effects of a program that you are
giving away for free? I personally see more danger in such commands as
rm than in xsane. I truly don't think that you can convince the whole
Linux community to adopt your idea. Do you really want to be the odd
one out and try to force people around to your unconventional idea? I
am currently doing EVERYTHING on my system as root. This is for the
simple reason that I am new to Linux and have some odd hardware in my
system. Until (and if) all the hardware works and I know that I can use
Linux for all my computing needs, I see no need to dive into the
intricacies of user administration. The last thing I need at this stage
is doubts about whether or not I really have the system priveleges I
need. Question: How do I tell the difference between something not
working because I haven't the right permissions and not working because
of a driver or installation problem? Answer: As a novice, only with
great difficulty. When I know that my hardware is running and I have no
doubts, then I can start setting up user accounts and fighting
permissions and priveleges. I know that running as root has its dangers
- but please also consider that I have spent YEARS using MS-DOS based
systems that had absolutely NO security features at all and so am used
to being careful with the commands I give and, yes, even recovering when
I do make a mistake. I would therefore thank you very kindly to refrain
from any user ID shenanigans ("spielereien" für Deutsch sprechende
leute.)
Respectfully,
Joseph R. Eoff
Enthusiastic new Linux user
(Begeisterte neue Linux Benutzer)
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Feb 26 2000 - 16:28:30 PST