Branden Robinson ([EMAIL PROTECTED]):

> >   I disagree.  If I'm showing a movie, have rented a large projector
> > and a hall, I'd really really like 24fps at exactly 72hz.  Giving
> > high-priority multimedia applications root access is a no-brainer.
> 
> That may be true for *your* preferred application of such an
> interface, but it's not acceptable for, e.g., most Linux distributors
> or groups like OpenBSD[1], who don't want to expose root security
> holes via multimedia software.

  There's a difference between have an application which must be run as
root, and one which gives a significant quality benefit when run as
root.  My DVD player (movietime.sf.net) will work just fine if you
aren't root, but it will look just as bad as xine, mplayer, or any of
the others.  For quality playback, root access is required.

  It's not like I'm demanding the app be installed setuid root.  But for
it to work, you need guarentees of latency etc.  I don't see how we can
give that to user applications without creating security holes.

  Still, I don't like the attitude that we should disallow users to use
the capabilities of their hardware completely because the security of a
standalone DVD playback machine might be compromised.

> [1] I'm not qualified to speak on behalf of OpenBSD, but given their
> approach to security I'd be pretty surprised if I were wrong on this
> point.

-- 
Billy Biggs
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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