Re: Simplifying package installation.

[Ted Milker <tmilker radiks net>]

Stefan Skoglund <stetson@ebox.tninet.se> wrote:
> If i'm not mistaken NextStep in this case really was like a single-user
> machine ie you got into your desktop immediately at boot-up ie no
> user-visible login action.

NextStep most certainly does have a login/password screen.

What I'm wondering about in the first place is why Miguel is even
worried about the fact that Gnome/Linux doesn't support the
Windows95/98-centric idea of everyone having root-type priviledges.
Look at Windows NT, if you have to install anything that puts in new
libraries or touches the system directories, you have to login as
Administrator to do it.  Now, I haven't seen Windows 2000 first hand,
so I don't know how Microsoft gets around it(or if they don't just
take the NT approach).  I think time would be better spent working
informing users on how to use root responsibly than trying to work out 
all these crazy schemes for getting around it.  We already have the
ability to give users limited root priviledges with utilities such as
sudo and using the unix groups/file permissions.  For example, it'd be
quite easy to set up an account(or an existing user account) that
could run rpm or gnorpm or whatever package manager under sudo and
allow that user to upgrade/install new programs.  Having a seperate
account cuts down on security issues and stops the wrong people from
installing the wrong software on the machine.  It also allows the
computer's owner to control what gets installed and run on their
computer and keeps them from doing something they may not have wanted
to do.  Linux/Gnome is not Windows.  Users should understand that from 
the get-go.

Ted