Why you should not have a graphical user interface for the super user
When I first used Mandrake 10, I could log in as super user with all the graphical interfaces and was pointing and clicking on things a lot. I realized later on that it could have caused me so much pain and agony, as well as a potential reinstall of the entire OS in case I did something wrong and could not undo it.
The graphical user interface lets us do a lot of interacting without much learning of the commands to be typed on the terminal. It gives us an immediate response via an event happening within the OS, within the app we clicked and invoked to run. As a super user we could delete privileges on another user, install applications, delete applications, change configurations. If we are new users who are left alone clicking away, things could go haywire.
Some who would rather do admin tasks in a graphical environment choose to use a desktop background that would remind them that they are in the super user mode. Or they’d use red as a background color if they don’t have a desktop background image.
I personally don’t do this so that I won’t do anything I’d regret later on. I’d rather go on the command line and run commands via sudo. :)
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3 opinions for Why you should not have a graphical user interface for the super user
alvlin
Jun 3, 2008 at 6:54 am
In desktop systems there is nothing to worry about.
Almost all of us come from Windows (some from windows 9x) and are used to work with ‘admin’ rights without breaking anything.
And as in Windows, if you know what you’re doing when you touch the system, there is nothing to worry about. Is not like being root will automatically make you forgot about basic system administration. After all, the same mistakes you can make as root can be done as normal user with sudo access.
But of course, in a server with lots of users, you better be careful :-D
dandellion
Jun 3, 2008 at 9:14 am
I used the same “screaming red background” for root while ago. Though I don’t need to log to root desktop I find very handy to run apps with GUI as a root. Ater all, it is easier to just drag and drop things than to sudo cp /blahblah….. Yes, I hate typing locations even with tab key :)
b5media - Poor Programming, Plurk-ing, and Pure IT Confessions (We want to hear em!)
Jun 6, 2008 at 11:34 am
[…] believe that a graphical user interface (GUI) should not even be used for a power Linux user. Clair tells us […]
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