[ale] Linux Distributions

[Jim Popovitch]

On Tue, 2005-05-17 at 14:28 -0400, Jerry Yu wrote:
> if /dev/hda8 is a scratch partition (treat it like a floppy, if you
> may), then not much.
> 
> However, the purpose of sudo is to grant a limited specific privilege
> (mkfs /dev/hda8, in this case) to a limited set of common users.
> Those not granted are thus reserved to the super user.

Most desktop users don't use their systems in "limited" roles.  They
want/need the power of the PC.  This is the Lindows argument, and a
valid one in my view, for using the super-user (i.e. root) account.

> As root, you can 'rm -rf /". As common user, you can do such only if
> such is explicitly granted by /etc/sudoers. 

As a common user you can "rm -rf ~" without sudo, which is worse?

> On a single-user home/hobby/test system, the distinction may not come
> as clear as in a true multi-user environment.

Few, if any, Linux desktop users are running multi-user environments.
In fact, multi-user is over-blown for this list, esp when talking
browsers, guntella, etc.  Granted there is probably someone who shares
the same PC with his/her spouse/kids.  In those cases user accounts make
sense, but I bet one of them has wheel or similar privileges. 

-Jim P.