Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2000 09:58:23 +0530 From: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in> To: "Thomas M. Sommers" <tms2@mail.ptd.net> Cc: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Why encourage stupid people to use *BSD WAS:Re: IE Message-ID: <20000603095822.A13686@physics.iisc.ernet.in> In-Reply-To: <393855D9.F5F0E5F0@mail.ptd.net>; from tms2@mail.ptd.net on Fri, Jun 02, 2000 at 08:48:25PM -0400 References: <200006021842.LAA24897@usr09.primenet.com> <393855D9.F5F0E5F0@mail.ptd.net>
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Thomas M. Sommers said on Jun 2, 2000 at 20:48:25: > Terry Lambert wrote: > > > People are not prepared for, and may not put up with, these > > > complexities and limitations. > > > > Most of these complexities are artifacts of substantial design > > flaws, which should be corrected, instead of glossed over as > > "that's the way it works; it's better, trust me". > > Some are, but some are due to essential differences between the kinds of > systems that FreeBSD and Windows are. These difference will remain > unless you convert FreeBSD to a single-user system. > > > > For example, people will say: "What do you mean I have to login? > > > I didn't have to do that with Windows." > > > > Windows 3.1, perhaps. > > 95 and 98, too. > > > Probably it should be called "unlocking", > > not "logging in". Certainly, it should be possible to turn on > > a FreeBSD box and just get a graphical desktop or shell prompt > > with a particular users credentials as an active default. It's > > the user's choice, not the OS designers. The "login problem" > > is trivial to overcome. > > While such a capability might be acceptable to a home or small-business > user, giving the user the capability to turn off security would be > unacceptable in a larger installation. (a) I don't see what's so hard about logging in. Anyone who uses email uses a password. Ordinary people aren't *that* dumb. (b) I read of an interesting setup done by a linux user for his mother: the startup scripts simply su to an unprivileged user, and start x as that user with some nice preconfigured desktop. End user experience for mother is same as in windows, but she's still an unprivileged user. There *may* be some point to that if the machine really isn't going to be used by more than one person and if that person is especially scared of computers generally. Otherwise I don't think it's worth the trouble, though... > > Well, the inability to undo an "oops" is a moronic point about > > FreeBSD. Humans have accidents; you must accomodate this fact > > about humans, rather than trying to suppress it. You must > > design systems which tolerate faults. > > That's what backups are for. What's wrong with having an undelete command, if someone can implement one? R. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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