Root Logins in X...

Brian Wheeler bdwheele at indiana.edu
Thu Jan 22 13:27:50 UTC 2009


On Thu, 2009-01-22 at 13:13 +0100, Morgan Olausson wrote:
> Hi, I am a non technical user of Fedora.
> 
> I think there should (and finally will) be two different versions:
> 
> (I) For non-technical users a version that just works. Easy to install,
> all settings are default. Simply a for free Microsoft Windows
> replacement. This is the Linux version that will be most widely spread.
> Most users have absolutely no idea of how to use a terminal window, and
> with this version they will not need to know it. 

You don't want non-technical users logging into the machine as root by
default no matter what because, as they say:  unix gives you enough rope
to shoot yourself in the foot. These situations are much better handled
with a non-privileged user logging in and then using sudo or the gui
equivalent.  So the root login thing doesn't really apply here.

I think a minimal "yukky" root desktop for maintenance is really the
right way to go:  it discourages unsafe usage, and it is obvious that
you're there to fix something.

Brian





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