[NCLUG] Why not Root?

[Dennis Clark]

I spent many years as a UNIX user and admin type.  In general I avoided 
doing most work as root simply because of permissions issues.  I would 
sometimes create a file/program/whatever as root and no one else could 
use it because of the permissions lockouts.  So my feeling is that you 
can go ahead and be root if you are the only one there - but be aware 
that some programs may be ill behaved and stomp on system resources 
(because they _can_ as root) and required you to fix things up later. 
I've never found myself inconvenienced by NOT being root when I'm just 
doing "stuff".

DLC

David Braley wrote:
> I am a happy Linux user by choice. I do not have a Unix or Linux
> background as a system administrator or developer. In many ways I am
> still a newbie, but I can also take care of a lot of problems on my own
> (thank the stars for google!).
> 
> I started using Linux some ten or so years ago (slackware 3.x?). I
> choose to use it as my primary desktop about seven years ago because I
> was impacted by the stories I was reading at the time about the ideas
> behind the open source movement. The stories were compelling and quite
> frankly, I was sick and tired of the blue screen of Death. I felt I
> could make a difference by making the switch. Even though I have had my
> share of problems with the mighty penguin, I am glad I joined the
> community of the few, I mean crazy, brave, no wait, I mean Cool!
> 
> So with all of that crap out of the way I have a question for the Super
> Cool Linux users on the list. (I brown nose so you'll be nice to me!)
> 
> If a Linux machine is built and used by a single person, why not always
> log in as root?
> 
> Oh sure, I have heard a million times from others say things like,
> "never log in as root because you could accidentally f**k up your
> system." From my experiences, I have COMPLETELY hosed a system executing
> a command as sudo.
> 
> Others will say, "you do not want other users messing up your system."
> What if I am the only user?
> 
> Is there a security reason for not logging in as root? Is the machine
> somehow less secure when someone is logged in as root?
> 
> If a mis-behaving program run by a user is crashing, is the rest of the
> system somehow safe from the evil program?
> 
> As a personal policy I do not use a computer for anything important. I
> do not store or create secrets on my computer. I am also quite
> comfortable with file loss (even though I do backups, mostly for
> convenience sake).
> 
> I bring this up because I am basically a lazy user. I was happy sudo'ing
> into things for system administration before I moved over from
> MicroNovelSoft to Fedora. That's when the whole annoying user path thing
> started to get to me.
> 
> david at linux:~> sudo ifup wlan0
> password: **********
> bash: ifup: command not found
> 
> Oh ya, with Fedora I need to put the full path in.
> 
> david at linux:~> sudo /sbin/ifup wlan0
> 
> blah blah blah .......
> 
> So I can easily fix this up by setting my path so that user david can
> have access to the other tools on my system using sudo (thanks Sean!).
> But it got me thinking about the whole root thing and how it creates
> another layer between me and the system, and the annoyance of getting
> over the barrier.
> 
> So ... in my case, why not just log in as root?
> 
> Take care.
> 
> David
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Dennis Clark    TTT Enterprises
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