On Sun, 27 Feb 2000 01:40:06 root wrote:
> 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)
>
I think that this discution might be a little off-topic, but I just had
to answer.. I'm just a regular linux-user, but I have never ever thought
about using the super-user account as a login-account. And I can't
imagine why anyone would want to. Ok, I use 'su root' a lot of times /
day, when managing files and adding modules for the kernel.
I use the Mustek 600 II N -scanner, which comes with it's own
"parallell-card", which must be accessed by root. I configurated sane
with inet.d, so I wont have to be root to run the frontend xsane, and so
I don't have to be root to scan images, which I find very satisfying.
I don't think that root should not be able to run xsane, but why would
anyone want to run it that way?..
You said that it may be difficult to know if you don't have permissions
to run a software or access certain files. You almost everytime get a
message to std_err, saying: "You don't have the permissions", or "You
have to be super-user to run this program" whenever super-user
permissions is needed.
Anyway.. I do not know much about this, but I heard on television a few
weeks ago that some russians (I think) talked about linux OS, and
viruses. The viruses themselves of cause has to be run by root to be
activated.. so..
Of cause I understand your point, that a system that is beeing used by
only one user has no need for another user then the super-user, and I
partly agree, but then again.. me myself really got rid of windows once
and for all when almost all of my software were infected by a virus that
would have flashed my BIOS, and I believe that running linux as a
single-user system might put me in a similar position.
I am really no expert in operative systems, and I think that people who
are have even better arguments for why not to run linux as root, but
this is just one way to look at it.. Running linux as root is like
running windows/DOS, anything might happen to your computer..
/johan eriksson
-- Source code, list archive, and docs: http://www.mostang.com/sane/ To unsubscribe: echo unsubscribe sane-devel | mail majordomo@mostang.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Feb 26 2000 - 18:17:09 PST