Re: Usability issues - root user/user accounts

[Tim Lewis <tlewis timelinevista com>]

"Pfaffenberger, Bryan" wrote:
> 
> GNOME will attract many users who are not familiar with Unix-like operating
> systems, and I'm concerned that they'll have a tough time with root and user
> accounts. Thanks to the new alerts, these users will realize that they
> shouldn't operate their computers as the root user. But they'll encounter
> difficulties when they attempt to create a user account for themselves. At
> the moment, the GNOME menus have nothing to offer; they'll have to hunt for
> linuxconf, which presents them with far more complexity than they're
> prepared to deal with. And once they log on as user, sound goes away --
> unless they're knowledgeable enough to start a terminal session, switch to
> superuser, start esd, and minimize the terminal window. Presumably there's a
> fix for this?

execute 'esdctl unlock' to allow all-user access to esd.

> 
> Here's one suggestion. When GNOME starts for the first time in root, users
> see a wizard that briefly explains the the purpose of the root user and the
> need for creating a user account. Subsequently, the wizard guides users
> through the creation of one or more user accounts, and restarts GNOME in a
> selected user account. Thanks to this wizard, users will not spend a great
> deal of time configuring and customizing their root desktop, only to find
> that they shouldn't use this desktop for everyday computing.

This is a great idea.

Tim


> 
> --Bryan
> 
> Bryan Pfaffenberger
> Associate Professor of Technology, Culture, and Communication
> School of Engineering and Applied Science
> University of Virginia
> Charlottesville, VA 22903
> bp@virginia.edu | http://pfaff.seas.virginia.edu/bp
> 
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