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it does tell you which password to enter in the title bar.

No, it does not. Root means nothing to normal people. It should have a clear-cut explanation of which password is needed, why, and what the launching program will do.

All of those lack in this dialog.

Maybe "root" means nothing to normal people - but somebody installing Linux isn't a normal person.

You asked a couple of questions:

"Which password? My personal account password? My administrator password? My god-mode password? Why is there no explanation which password, and why exactly you need to enter it?"

I suggested that the title bar informed you that it was the "root" password which was being prompted for - something you actually acknowleged by calling it the root password dialog in the first place!

Saying that root means nothing to users is different from claiming to not understand which password is being saught.

I'd easily agree that the dialog is not good, as you say it doesn't explain why you need it. It doesn't give enough details at all.

But it does do what you claim it did not. It tells you which account the password is being requested for.

So whilst I agreed with the points raised in the article I'm not going to watch you change the question afterwards.

Besides, even if you know what root is, the titlebar still doesn't tell you what password you need to enter. You don't always enter the root password to run an app as root. Consider sudo.

There is no "root" in Ubuntu. Everything is done by using sudo.
So, normal people don't need understanding what root means. The password is *your* password, really.

Actually, thom, it does tell you clearly which password you need to enter: your password.

Which user were you logged in with? That user's password is the one you need to enter.

There's no root password on kubuntu.

-- edit --

Granted, it could be made better, by for instance spelling the name of the user, perhaps like this: "thom, please enter your password", where "thom" would be that user's login.

Edited 2006-06-18 21:42

Yes, the "Run as root" dialogue needs to be explicit, even if there has to be some kind of extra work done to work out whether the system wants the actual root password or the user's own password. The ambiguity compounded an issue I had with sudo not being set up on previous Kubuntu releases: which password did it want? Initially I assumed it wanted the root password, but only after digging deeper did I realise that it wanted my own password... and a working sudo configuration, of course.

While this is a relevant gripe it is a Kubuntu issue NOT a KDE issue.

Kubuntu is not KDE and this does not happen with (for instance) Suse. The dialogue box in Suse clearly asks for the root password where you want to see it.

"Whilst I admit the dialog box you use as an example does need some love it does tell you which password to enter in the title bar."

So what does the ignore button do?

Well, it should probably be renamed to "Skip", but I don't think it that confusing if you stop and think about it - just annoying and badly designed.

By the way, the default box comes with a more descriptive message which explains the Ignore button saying:

The action you requested needs root privileges. Please enter root's password below or click Ignore to continue with your current priveleges.

Kubuntu clearly tried to modify this dialog box to fit in with their "root doesn't exist" approach, and completely screwed up user-friendlyness in the process.

Edited 2006-06-18 20:12

The dialog is clear. <sarcasm> Maybe you should know that (K)ubuntu implements sudo to run privileged commands. </sarcasm>

It says "Please enter *your* password" and yes, it means your personal password. Otherwise, the dialog says, enter administrator or root password etc.

Well, he is looking at it from a usability point of view; if you showed that to an average user, will he know what he is about to do? lets say its a trojan, and it requesting the password, why does it ask the password? well, joe user is unsure about computers, and he assumes that the computer knows best, so be puts in his password, and voila, rooted system.

Firstly, the dialogue needs to be headed up with "Application [name] requests Super User Privilages", then in the dialogue box, a small repeat of that, and a preamble as to what it actually means, such as, "[application[ is requesting, what is known as, super user privilages - to allow this to happen, you need to put in your password, BUT, by putting in your password, you are granting access to the whole system to the application, this is very risky as the application could be a virus!"

Its about notifying, educating and providing options; the dialogue box included gobbly goop like su, and so forth, which the average user would find completely over their head.

> so be puts in his password, and voila, rooted system.

That could never happen in that case, since only kdesu, by using sudo, has the ability to let you act as if you were "root" by using the password of the normal user you're logged in with. No trojan could be able to do the same.