Re: help

[Lisi <lisi.reisz@gmail.com>]

On Wednesday 02 February 2011 14:08:35 Chris Bannister wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 02, 2011 at 11:59:28AM +0000, Camaleón wrote:
> > Hum... if I interpreted correctly your words, you think "sudo" is
> > intended for non-expert users and I don't think so, but the opposite:
> > "sudo" (as I see) is for people who know what involves and what it means
> > and not many newbies know very well how permissions are managed in their
> > systems and don't care much on security considerations.
> >
> > In brief: if you know what "sudo" is for, you should not have any problem
> > to configure it ;-)
>
> If you know what is for then you'd know to put sudo before any command
> that you should execute as root.
>
> But Ubuntu configures it automatically AIUI and there is the occassional
> Ubuntu user asking questions on *this* list where the advice "sudo
> <whatever>" will work but may not be the correct advice for an Ubuntu
> system.
>
> But for a new Debian user (either an ex Windows or ex Ubuntu user), the
> advice "sudo <whatever>" won't work[1] and just may confuse the poor
> bugger.
>
> There used to be a time when commands to be executed as a normal user
> would be preceeded by a '$' and commands to be executed as root would be
> preceeded by a '#'. This is a safer method and makes all the problems I can
> forsee non existant[2]
>
>
> [1] Unless they choose expert install from the Squeeze installer. But
>     then it is their choice to use sudo, and not us assuming they have
>     it configured.
>
> [2] - An Ubuntu user won't complain that their system is now buggered
>       because of the "help" they got from this list.
>
>     - A new user will learn the difference between being root and just a
>       normal user.
>
> --
> "Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet."
>    -- Napoleon Bonaparte

Chris - I am beginning to think that Chamaleón's problem understanding what we 
are on about, may be semantic.

Lisi