[mythtv-users] OT: SATA errors

[jedi]

On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 12:03:44PM -0700, David Brodbeck wrote:
> Brian Wood wrote:
>> Ubuntu has done well at attracting new Linux users (I think it's now 
>> the most popular distro), but at the cost of behaving differently from 
>> "normal" Linux distros. I know they have a "If you're moving from 
>> Windows" section in their docs, perhaps they need an "if you're moving 
>> from a more normal Unix" section.
>
> FWIW, discouraging people from logging in as root is not unique to  
> Ubuntu.  Lately I've been playing with OpenSolaris, and I've found that  
> the Solaris world strongly discourages root logins.  In fact, a default  
> install will not let you log in directly as root, even from the console,  
> and most Solaris versions don't even bother to give root a home  
> directory.  Instead they provide a profile mechanism to give user  
> accounts the authority to do various rootly duties, and a pfexec command  
> to run commands using those profiles.
>
> It turns out the "all or nothing" approach to administrative privileges  
> that used to exist in Unix isn't very good for security, so more  
> security-conscious implementations tend to shy away from it now.

    sudo has been in wide use in commercial Unix installations for a long 
time. It was commonplace long before Ubuntu decided to use it. If you've
used more than just Linux it is likely not very shocking.

    It's also pretty trivial to exploit sudo so that you can go about 
doing things the same way you always have... '-)