allowing a "normal" user to work efficiently

["Benedict Verheyen" <linux4bene@pandora.be>]

Hi,

i'm wondering what the best method is of allowing a normal user account to
do stuff like writing cd's, accessing local webpages (/var/www) and so on.
There are a couple of methods like:

1. Making a group, put the user in that group and set that group as owner
of say /var/www or another dir where you want to user to have access too.

2. In case of cd writing, you can set the SUID of cdrecord and related
programs or you can use sudo. Only problem with sudo is that the user has
to type sudo in front of the commands.

What is the best method with security and user-friendliness in mind?

I mean, I could let my wife work on Linux but to take the example of the
cdwriting, she would be confused: "hey, on windows i can burn cd's
straight out of the box and here not, i have to use this sudo thing"
Off course this example is a bit far fetched since she wouldn't work on
the command line and use XCDRoast or something similar and thus avoid the
problems described above.
But i would still like to know what the best way of working is.

Thanks for any insights,
Benedict