[ale] Linux Distributions

[George Carless]

> > This is just asking for trouble.  
> 
> HOW SO?   Everyone says this, nobody every follows through with
> specifics.

Because if you are running as root, then so are the applications that 
you are running, which means that you need to trust not only what you 
are doing yourself, but also what all of those applications are doing.  
And, whether by accident or by design, those applications might not be 
doing what you think they are doing, and when they have unrestricted 
access to the system then there is the risk of total, catastrophic 
issues.
> 
> > Unless you're going to spend the time with a fine-tooth comb 
> > to audit every piece of software that you run,
> 
> No need to audit software that you trust.  The fine tooth comb is needed
> to set EVERYTHING up for a normal user to have access to gratuitous
> system resources needed by everyday apps (iPODs, dvd burners, video
> games, advanced sound card features (midi, etc).

First, I've not generally found that it IS necessary to open much up for 
a 'normal user': most things--in fact, more things than you might 
expect--can easily be coaxed to run as a regular user.  And second, the 
practical reality seems to be that people will generally "trust" a great 
deal more than they should, in the name of convenience.  Which is all 
well and good, but this kind of approach will seriously impact the 
security of your machine, etc. etc.  Let's say that you're browsing the 
Web, as root, and your "trusted" Web browser has bugs in it.  Let's say 
that some malicious person manipulates those bugs to wipe out your files 
- result as a regular user: nothing too bad.  Results as root: oh-oh.

--George 
--------------------------------------
George Carless ... kafka at antichri.st
Words are just dust in deserts of sound