> Are you new to Unix? Ever use it in a university or work environment?
> Few people in those setting have root access, and it works fine. Better
> than windows, since the user cannot trash the whole system by soing
> something stupid. (try "rm -Rf /" on *nix and "deltree C:\" on windows)
Hey hey, be nice to the benji. I personaly also love the logic & method
behind unix filesystems & permissions, but you have to admit you two are
prob. different types of users. If you talk about unix servers and apps in
your home dir, you are using a multi-user networked envirioment. Benjamin
prob. only wants his box to be a 'simple' desktop computer where it is
understandable that many of those features are confusing. It's that learning
curve that causes so many n00bs to log in as root and not as user (and the
dis/advantages of either have not been explained to them).
> What about the lost productivity waiting for the system to reinstall,
> and the data to be restored?
What about learning by playing with things? It sounds like he is still in
the expirimental fase, and not building production servers & workstations..
Often the best way to learn is by breaking it a few times; I know i went
thru that fase for a while ;-)
>> as far as setting group permissions, that works in FreeBSD, but not any
>> Linux that I've seen. in FreeBSD, I can just add a user to wheel. when
>> I try chown-ing to give the group "user" access to system files,
>> sometimes the system refuses to use the file, saying that it's not the
>> original. this usually results in a system that doesn't boot...
What you could do is make a group (say softwareusers) and chown -R
/usr/local to that group. Then add all your users to that group and anyone
can install custom software to the systemwide /usr/local, without breaking
any system files (which are located in /usr). That way you and the others
can play all you want, without corrupting the box's OS. (ps u could always
put /usr/local before /usr in your ~/.bashrc if u want to use your custom
version of a tool instead of the rh's one in /usr)
The same kind of setup can be done for config files (create config group,
change group on conf files, etc)
Be creative!
-- Chris
