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"Joseph B. Welsh" wrote:
>
> Darxus@chaosreigns.com wrote:
>
> >
> >You should only log in as root when necessary. Everything you can do as a
> >non-root user, you should do as a non-root user. You can't accidentally rm
> >-rf / as a non-root user. This is a good thing.
> >
> I agree, but can't I do the same thing with a su command in a terminal
> window?
>
> I have been running as root for 2 years and never have I typed a command
> like that. I gather from what everyone is saying that as non root user,
> If I do become careless, I have less chance of deleting something I want
> to keep. But is that the only advantage to being non root on the system
> I described?
>
> Joe
>
On a single user machine, the advantage is pretty much what's been said
already. You have a little better protection for a few problems you
might cause yourself. I feel the same way, although I recently started
running as a normal user on my systems, I ran my original home system as
root for many years. Once you start, it's a pain to change all those
files you have access privileges for away from root, so I didn't do it
for a while.
So, the main advantage is protection of executables, their defaults, and
your system settings. These things are root only, so you have to make a
conscious decision to change to root and modify them.
Part of the disadvantage, on a single user system, is that much of your
work will likely be owned by you. For example, I have mail, multiple
development source code trees, text notes, etc, all under my user
account. All these items are at risk if I run a destructive command or
malicious program as myself.
If you have more than one user, then often the amount of damage you can
do is limited only to your own files, and not the system wide files,
including others work files you might use.
--
Kevin Brosius
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