On Thu, Jul 19, 2007 at 11:51:34AM -0400, Horst H. von Brand wrote:
> > blurry? no it's completely non-existent. :)
> There's at least a whole lot of overlap. :)
Nope. If it has to be installed/configured/managed by root, it is system
software, regardless of it being the kernel or a game. The stuff in
$HOME is yours to mess around with.
You mean "by root", or "by a process with root privileges"? Because
that's a
whole different question.
To think otherwise is creating a whole new landscape of operating
system... and that can't be handled by just "OK, let's install <foo kind
of packages> by default under the control of Joe R. User", there has to
be a _lot_ more thought behind it.
"Foo kind of packages" from an approved repository of
cryptographically-signed rpms.
Exactly the other way around. In a controlled environment, you could
give the root password (or a suitably restricted sudo(1) entry) to
assorted users, or require users to contact the sysadmin to install
stuff. If you are thinking about the machines in a lab, the /very last/
thing you want is different configurations because on each machine a
random user, way back, ran some program with unusual flags, and didn't
note that this meant installing some gunk.
I'm thinking more about individual machines deployed on desktop systems
where the users want some control but are not sysadmins. For stuff like the
above, why bother the admin?
--
Matthew Miller mattdm(a)mattdm.org <
http://mattdm.org/>
Boston University Linux ------> <
http://linux.bu.edu/>