>>>>> "Adityan" == Adityan S Murthy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Adityan> Hi All, I am a desktop user of Linux and I find working
Adityan> as root very comfortable since i keep installing software
How/Why is working as root more "comfortable" ? I don't quite
understand *HOW* it is more beneficial? Infact, on the contrary, *I*
think its more harmful. Once you get online with your box, and logged
in with multiple instances of root, you're begging to be cracked. Lets
look at it like this.Do you get online at all on that box? Assuming
yes, since you just sent in an email, then you probably start up ICQ
or get on IRC or fetchmail ?! Well, all of them have some known and
some unknown exploits, and if you're already working as root, the
chances of a security compromise radically increase.
When I first got started with Debian, I remember
Prabhu/Thaths/Raghavendra Bhat giving me some URLs which were Debian
specific, and going through them, they documented very many reasons
why even working on an isolated box, not even connected to the
internet, *all the time* as root, is dangerous. I just managed to
grasp the idea, but didn't really bother remembering the exact
reasons. Maybe one/more of them might give you those Links again?
Also, the LDP had some clauses on this.
My own rant:
Now, why would you want to work as root, *all the
time* ? To think practically, I strongly believe that you would learn
far less linux, than you would, working as luser. Besides, look at it
this way, if you were to give out even one single normal user account,
and some guy telnet's in... you wouldn't know how many powers he
has... To get a real understanding of things, it could help working as
luser.
One last thing, I am in the habit of moving directories/files
a lot, especially mp3's etc.. and i go straight ahead and hit "rm -rf
~/mp3s" and suppose, as root, you by chance hit, "rm -rf /" ... well,
your box is history.
*I* , off hand, can't think of too many real reasons why you
should *not* work as root.. but at the same time, I don't see any
reason why you *should* work as root at all?
Adityan> all the time. Is there any disadvantages of working as
You install packages *ALL* the time? wow. Obviously not *ALL*
the time... well... Debian comes with Probably 3500 packages... and
assuming you install about 500 packages during install time... into 2
GB .. and going by what you say, you probably install the remaining
3000 packages into another 10 GB? For what? Do you really *use* *ALL*
of those packages ?
<major rant>
I see *many* people who seem to come up with this
rather brilliant argument. When I'm going around doing linux-advocacy
of sorts ... they say, "Windows can make my monitor jump up and down
40,000 times in 3 seconds,...can linux do that?" ... Well, that was
obviously not *literally* ... but the drift is this ... they say
things like, "I can play $useless-game on windows" ... "I can use
infra-red devices on windows" .. "I have some weird software by which
I can call myself on my cell phone 4 times a day" ... and I can't do
all these on linux.
My reply to this is this:
1] First of all, I *know* that support for Infra-Red
devices and suchlike are drastically on the increase, and Werner
Heuser's Laptop-HOWTO documents a lot of this stuff.
2] Most Importantly, as normal user, on a daily basis,
do you *REALLY* do all of those? Do you *REALLY* need to be able to
use that feature or whatever? In *MY* case, All I use my computer,
regardless of platform is this ... emails + icq + irc + coding some
trivial C/C++ stuff ... thats pretty much it... well, *I* can do all
of these on Linux, *Much* more efficiently, than I can on, Windows.
Like for emails, I have a great mailer, plus I have
procmail, plus I have cron, which helps me out in more cases than one.
And scripting ircII is much easier, more fun, and much
more powerful than scripting for win32 clients... and so on... the
list is endless..
On the other hand, by really switching full time to
Linux, I *am* learning a lot of general theory.. For instance, under
Windows, I didn't know what an IRQ or a DMA was .. I didn't even know
what Sound card/video card I had ... and then I didn't know what NTP
was.. or SSH ... or SSL .. or rcp ... or how to run my own
IRCD... I've hacked the UnrealIRC source, and Its actually a lot of
fun, doing it... and I just *wanted* a cron-replacement on my windows
box .. but then I didn't know what it was.. and I was just using Win95
.... no NT ... blah blah blah .. I dont have to suffer with BSOD's
... and I have 7 terminals on which to work .. multi-user
capabilities.. I didn't even so much as know what a nameserver was
.. but looking back, I realise, that by switching to Linux, I was
forced to learn a lot of this, to get my box underway, and if you were
to read Raju Mathur's article on Linux.com, the link to which was
posted a few days back ... which I strongly recommend... *and* agree
with.. it is very vital that each guy understands *completely* what
his box is doing, and realises its full capabilities, .. or it could
turn out to be a dangerous tool ..
</rant>
I rest my case :>
-- ravi
--
Ravikant K.Rao | http://www.symonds.net/~ravi/
Primary Email : <<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
For more information on the LIH mailing list see:
http://lists.linux-india.org/lists/LIH
