On Mon, Oct 10, 2005 at 02:29:14AM +0200, nordi wrote:
Certainly not. I was just illustrating that passwords are an add-on feature to the distribution to counter Carl's argument that auto login was an add-on feature. Password protection is a feature that was not present in MS DOS, hence it was auto login.
Somebody already pointed out that DOS was a single user, single machine, no connection type of thing. Linux comes from the Unix world and was designed to be multi user.
And that last thing is excactly the point why a password needs to be entered. Well, the only security implication of auto login is: "Everybody standing in front of the PC can switch it on just like I do, and then use it just like I do." Anyone that can button his shirt by himself is able to see that.
A PC is not a TV or a fridge or any other household applience. That really depends on whom you ask...
Indeed. And if I want to have an opinion, I ask people who understand the matter. A lot of people also log in as root or as admin and think that is very normal. That does not mean they are right, even they are the majority.
Very interesting point. I think at least from a business perspective it makes a lot of sense to try to reach a balance between security/safety and usability, at least when you produce a consumer OS like Suse Linux.
I could not find a reference, but know (from memeory, so probably not true) that that is the reason Microsoft turned all services on, because then they would not be bothered by phonecalls asking how to turn service X on. For Microsoft this could go into a few hundred people less to hire.
Not like I wouldn't want a default umask to 077 for Suse and default permissions set to "secure" instead of "easy". But I don't think that will happen any time soon. For usability reasons.
We are only talking about wether or not the login should be on or off suring the instalation. I log in mayby twice a day (today a bit more, because I am testing the login screen). Put a big red mark next to it and tell people that if they do NOT want to enter a password, to put a cross there. You can change it during instalation, you can change it later. However I think the default should be no cross there during the instalation (and root mail to the first person as well) houghi -- Quote correct (NL) http://www.briachons.org/art/quote/ Zitiere richtig (DE) http://www.afaik.de/usenet/faq/zitieren Quote correctly (EN) http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html