HARDY.BOEHM@LHSYSTEMS.COM wrote:
Hi Folks!
Would someone please explain to me,
why I shouldn't use my system as root
but as a "normal" user instead?
Just my two cents on the root user being used regularly:
1) When you are using a regular account and try to do something
that requires root you can't. This means you must become root and
actually have to do something to change that. This will cause you
to remember, and be conscious of, the power of the account. You don't
move quite so quickly!
2) Another thing I notice that wasn't mentioned... Why
don't you have the . (current) directory in root's path? (I note
it is an option in 6.1's yast) Picture this: For whatever reason,
you're in a user's home dir, or somewhere anyone can write to. They
wrote a script in that dir called "whatever" The content of the script
is, say:
- 'dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=10240 count=10240' (put in
your own numbers and drive type.) or even the perennial:
- 'rm -rf /*'
Normal commands like ls will be executed in order
of the path, so a file called "ls" won't do much, but still, the concept
is there. What if it were a binary you thought was known good?
3) If you normally work at home in root and toast your system,
so what (well, you know.) But habits are hard to break. If
you use Linux at work, odds are you'll be using root out of habit, not
remembering the power of the account (see #1)
Hope that helps, too!
--
mailto:horis@idirect.com
http://webhome.idirect.com/~horis
On the side of the software box, in the "System requirements section",
it said "Requires Windows 95 or better." So I installed Linux.