Re: [PATCH] Single user linux

Rasmus Bøg Hansen
2001-04-26T12:36:19Z

> taking place as a clueless user, i think i should be able to do anything.

Yeah, I thought so when I started using Linux. I stopped thinking so,
when I accidentally blew up the FS on my datadrive and lost
nearly _everything_ I had written for 2 years...

> i'd be happy to accept proof that multi-user is a solution for
> clueless user, not because it's proven on servers. but because it is
> a solution by definition.

Let's turn the question the other way. It's you trying to convince
us, that everyone needs root access. What does a clueless user need root
access for?

Programming - no.
Writing documents - no.
Surfing the web - no.
Reading email - no.
Installing kernels - yes (but a clueless user won't do this).
Running viruses, that blow up the entire system - yes.
Installing software - yes. But how often do you do that? And is the 'su'
really so hard to remember?

If you really want to have different uids, why not hack xdm/login to
autologin. And when it autologins to a specific user, why do you want
different id's?

And if you really want everybody to have access to all files, you can
just do a 'chmod 777 /'. Perhaps set it up as a cronjob to run daily?

Besides you write, that a distro shipping single-user is evil. So you
want the clueless user to recompile his own kernel to enable single-user
mode (why do at all call it 'single-user' when you still have different
ID's?)... The clueless user probably does not even know what the kernel
is - and then have to recompile it...

Rasmus

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