Seagate pops Lindows onto hard drives at no charge (Register) [LWN.net]

Seagate pops Lindows onto hard drives at no charge (Register)

Posted Sep 25, 2003 12:11 UTC (Thu) by Arker (guest, #14205) [Link]

I really don't like Lindows. Not because it's a distro aimed at the less computer literate, no, I think that's a really good idea, if they'd just do it right. But running everything as root is a really horrible idea. It's possible to fix this, sort of, if you know what you're doing, but that defeats the whole purpose of a newbie-oriented distro now doesn't it?

Unless they fix this, I wouldn't even consider recommending Lindows to anyone. Mandrake looks like a much better choice for Lindows target audience to me.

Seagate pops Lindows onto hard drives at no charge (Register)

Posted Sep 25, 2003 12:57 UTC (Thu) by haraldt (guest, #961) [Link]

This has been commented before.

You're asked if you want to run everything as root or if you want to have separate non-root users. Much like with the latest MSwindows versions.
The choices are explained and having a separate root account for administration is recommended. (And, if memory serves me right, default).

It's just, you don't have to handle a secured installation if what you pine for is simple and ignorant.

Seagate pops Lindows onto hard drives at no charge (Register)

Posted Sep 25, 2003 13:53 UTC (Thu) by ccchips (guest, #3222) [Link]

There are situations in which you may not want to run complex security.

For example, I have machines that are specifically for composing music. They are sometimes networked together for purposes having to do with the advanced ALSA connectivity features. None of them are connected to an external network when I operate them in this way.

In that situation, I'm inclined to set up separate drives or partitions to boot a simple, no-cops arrangement that is geared for blinding speed.

OTOH, any machine that could be reached from outside should not be set up to run everything with one account that has God rights.

Just my 2 cents.

Seagate pops Lindows onto hard drives at no charge (Register)

Posted Sep 25, 2003 13:10 UTC (Thu) by dmaxwell (guest, #14010) [Link]

OS X handles this issue well. The initial user set up on the system can do most things. Ordinary users need the initial users bonafides to install software and the root user is disabled by default. All of this is supported by dialogs that explain it. Perhaps the "user-friendly" distros should do something similar. That is, actually write a little code to guide the default non-root user who needs to do minor system administration.

Seagate pops Lindows onto hard drives at no charge (Register)

Posted Sep 25, 2003 21:11 UTC (Thu) by lakeland (subscriber, #1157) [Link]

This has not been true for ages (months? longer?) Please don't diss an OS without at
least looking at the current version.

Seagate pops Lindows onto hard drives

Posted Sep 26, 2003 20:27 UTC (Fri) by jdrabik (guest, #15459) [Link]

OK, so I'm a Debian fan, and I don't know if I would use Lindows myself (for my mother though...?) But they are on-target to create push-button software installation, and that's worth something. And they're doing this with more than just Linux: try office suites, filtering, etc. I think it's fantastic news that Seagate is doing this, and it adds value to their disk drives. Hey, you don't have to use it. But it's nice to have the OPTION at least. Thanks, Lindows!

John Drabik