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So why allow for a root password in GNU at all? Is Stallman really saying that everyone should have root access? If you accept that there's a use for a secret
by benwr 15y ago
So why allow for a root password in GNU at all? Is Stallman really saying that everyone should have root access?
If you accept that there's a use for a secret root password (which, I assume, Stallman has; otherwise why write an `su` at all?), having no wheel group would seem to encourage a /single/ admin with the password, to prevent the leaking of info he mentions. Which is more tyrannous?
- Someone 15y agosu has uses even when everyone knows the root password. It allows you to run a command as a different user without logging out. I also am not sure that Stallman accepted the need for passwords at all when he wrote that text. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman: "When MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) installed a password control system in 1977, Stallman found a way to decrypt the passwords and sent users messages containing their decoded password, with a suggestion to change it to the empty string (that is, no password) instead, to re-enable anonymous access to the systems"