[mythtv-users] OT: SATA errors

[David Brodbeck]

Brian Wood wrote:
> Ubuntu has done well at attracting new Linux users (I think it's now the most 
> popular distro), but at the cost of behaving differently from "normal" Linux 
> distros. I know they have a "If you're moving from Windows" section in their 
> docs, perhaps they need an "if you're moving from a more normal Unix" 
> section.

FWIW, discouraging people from logging in as root is not unique to 
Ubuntu.  Lately I've been playing with OpenSolaris, and I've found that 
the Solaris world strongly discourages root logins.  In fact, a default 
install will not let you log in directly as root, even from the console, 
and most Solaris versions don't even bother to give root a home 
directory.  Instead they provide a profile mechanism to give user 
accounts the authority to do various rootly duties, and a pfexec command 
to run commands using those profiles.

It turns out the "all or nothing" approach to administrative privileges 
that used to exist in Unix isn't very good for security, so more 
security-conscious implementations tend to shy away from it now.