Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sat 2nd Feb 2008 22:29 UTC, submitted by Nemilar
"Its official release is just under three months away, and Ubuntu 8.04, or Hardy Heron, promises some great improvements over the already user-friendly Ubuntu 7.10 (also known as Gusty Gibbon). This is a look at the fourth Alpha release of Hardy; including many of the applications that are now included by default and the major changes that will improve stability and usability. Among these are the addition of Firefox 3 and Remote Desktop on the applications side, and a new method for systems control known as Policy Kit, which enables the administrator to unlock certain functions for normal users."
Thread beginning with comment 299071
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2006-10-08
A good example is changing the system's time. While it should not be allowed by normal users on a server, on a laptop it would definitely make sense to allow normal user to change the system time at will, especially if the user travels a lot between different time zones.
In this case, the user would just have to change the timezone. :-)
But you're right, the easyness to change things on a system depends on where the system is installed. You mentioned a server and a laptop. The classical field of Linux' use, the multi-user system, does not dominate today, instead, one system is usually used by one user. Most settings should be changable easily, except those ones that can - abused because of a lack of knowledge, laziness, or stupidity - enable the system to get compromized too easily.
To increase "productivity" (in fact, comfortability for the average user), security barriers are abandoned step by step. For some of them, it really does not matter. For others, they are intended to where they belong, and they have their reasons (root privileges to administer firewall and server settings).
Member since:
2005-11-11
A good example is changing the system's time. While it should not be allowed by normal users on a server, on a laptop it would definitely make sense to allow normal user to change the system time at will, especially if the user travels a lot between different time zones.