[arm-allstar] General Observation

[Jim Kinter Jr.]

Hi Nate,

running as non-root is a precautionary thing.
Its like being Administrator on Windoze.
Its easier to delete/move/change critical things that could hose the 
system when running as root.

Personally, I think sudo (lets you be your account but run things 
that need root access) is a big PIA.
I have been doing Linux since the late 90's (SuSe and RedHat 
upstreams) and as soon as I log into a machine, I change to root (if 
I couldnt SSH in as root directly due to security restrictions)
Yes, I have done stupid things at 2am when I should have just gone to 
bed (like mistyped a command and moved the /etc directory, 
immediately kicking me out of term and not letting any login happen)
You just have to pay attention to detail and know what you are doing 
when running as root (and know how to fix it if you really do whack 
something bad).

If you are shaky at Linux, its better to stay non-root and sudo when 
needed, unutil you get more comfortable .

73
Jim



At 10:43 PM 5/16/2017, \"Nathaniel Biser via arm-allstar\" wrote:
>Bryan's security curiously reminded me of a question I had when I first
>installed Allstar.  I'm not new to Linux and have used Ubuntu, Debein, and
>Slackware but I still consider myself a novice as I have only flirted with
>it and haven't yet used linux as my main OS on my PC.
>
>The one consistency that I have read and heard about Linux is that you
>shouldn't run as root on a regular basis.  The specific reasons escape me
>at the moment but I'm gonna go out on the limb and hypothesize that it's
>because if your system was compromised, and you are running as root, it
>would be much more detrimental then if you were running as a user.
>
>I am curious as to why is the Allstar software page defaults to running as
>root upon installation.  Like I said, I am only a student in all of this
>but I would like to hear the pros and cons of doing so.
>
>Thanks!
>
>-Nate
>KC3HOZ
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73
Jim Kinter, Jr. K5KTF
Cedar Park TX
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