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Linux...

I dunno, disabling root may not be the worst decision. I don't have a lot of Linux experience, but any OS that wants to be on the desktop does have to seriously consider security measures over convenience. Enabling it shouldn't ruin the whole thing, but it certainly doesn't seem like a poor policy choice to disable it by default. Afterall, worms only came to an end when Microsoft made the policy decision to enable to XP SP2 firewall by default. Defaults are what make the difference.
 
Defaults aren't always helpfull. And what I mean about disabling root, is disabling account usage. And root is required for most major tasks that you run using Linux.
 
I disagree; as I've said, with any major consumer product, defaults are the single most important security feature. 95% of any mainstream piece of software's userbase won't ever change them, so if there's a policy decision that, while more convenient, provides a vector of attack, that vector will be exploited and be a problem. (Such as raw sockets on XP)

Besides, why run as root anyways? You can always sudo to elevate your privileges. Again, I don't know a lot of Unix, but with the little I've used in OS X, it's always been true. Besides, I'm pretty sure the conventional wisdom has always been "Never run as root" for Unix for years. oo; Of course, you should still be able to if you really want to. It shouldn't be enabled be default, but it should be usable if the user explicitly enables it.
 
The problem is, if you enable root, the whole OS is literally "eff you see kayed"
 
Rindiny said:
The problem is, if you enable root, the whole OS is literally "eff you see kayed"
Click to expand...
But Ubuntu IS aimed at the beginners/average side of people. And when do they need to use root?
 
UNIX performs many tasks, and many tasks require powers such as root.
 
Huh. Are you using the new beta version, Rindiny? I could download it and throw it onto a VM to see if that problem is present in the latest version. You might have to walk me through the steps, though. XD;
 
well you shouldn't be running as root in the gui ~ ever. never ever. you sudo from shell when you need elevated privs, but you never run as root. if you want proper shell root, run
Code: 
sudo passwd root
it wont give you gui access to root, only shell, but you should never ever ever ever ever login as root on gui anyway. ever ever. also ubuntu is free without any shipping charge worldwide. for any reasonable quantity in addition.
 
Agreed - I mean, if you need root privileges in the GUI, it should prompt you for the password anyway.

I hate Ubuntu, though - give me Gentoo any day. For something easier to use, I'll happily take openSUSE (even if Novell does own it now, I've been using SuSE since before Novell took over) or Fedora Core.
 
CentOS right now is the best one, in my opinion for beginners.
 
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