On Fri, 2008-02-15 at 12:06 -0800, Clark Dunson wrote: > And Gnome overrides su/root?!? Whathehellis this dialog box?!?: > > > "You are not allowed to access the system configuration" > > > That is really bogus. I'm root!!! Actually, unless you've heavily customized Ubuntu, you're not. Neither is anybody else. Ubuntu uses sudo, which allows normal users to escalate their privileges without actually becoming root. When prompted for a password for sudo, you do not type a root password; you type your own password. This prevents malicious scripts from simply assuming privileges without your authorization. This is not a Gnome thing. It's an Ubuntu thing. And for that matter, Ubuntu did not invent sudo. It's been around since the 1980s. Gnome is, however, moving towards PolicyKit, which is like sudo in that it grants authorization for particular tasks, instead of just handing out root. PolicyKit is more well-suited for graphical applications, though, as it allows applications to perform backend operations with privileges without the graphical application itself having those privileges. If this is too un-UNIX for you, well, sorry. But it's a better system in pretty much every way imaginable. -- Shaun _______________________________________________ gnome-list mailing list gnome-list@xxxxxxxxx http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-list
