[Wolves] Ubuntu: Reconfiguring hardware

Chris Ball chris at mnemonik.net
Mon Dec 6 14:35:52 GMT 2004


Kevanf1 wrote:

> That's my understanding too.  However, I think permissions also come
> into play.  I have probably set up permissions incorrectly on one of
> my drives.  In effect giving myself too many permissions for a user
> rather than root or SU.  That could possibly be a disaster area for
> other newcomers.  It can be a little too easy to give overall blanket
> permission for a certain drive or folder when perhaps only read access
> is really necessary.  I know, I have done this before and only
> realised when I have become a bit more experienced with Linux.  And I
> have a very, very long way to go yet :-)

Yeah, I agree completely. I remember when I first delved into Linux, I 
found chmod and chown all very confusing. Kde and Gnome make changing 
permissions easier, but I believe that for people who perhaps are not 
especially computer-savvy, the differences between User,Group and Other 
would be quite vague, and that's before we bring user ownership into the 
mix.

However, as long as people take heed of the first Linux mantra "Don't 
use root unless you have too" I think that for the most part, the damage 
  viruses can do (unless they can gain root/service access to some 
files) will be very limited.



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