geraldew

As it happened, my OS migration path was:
- CP/M, DOS/Win3,Win95/98
- trials of Linux (mainly Mandrake)
- WinXP
- Ubuntu/Xubuntu

In which the Linux trial period "taught me" to make separate "admin" and "user" accounts, which I have ever since done with both Windows and Linux.

Use "admin" to administer or update and keep general usage to one (or more) limited accounts. Part of me feels it's most important for newer users.

So the question: is it still worthwhile?
#Linux

Dec 26 at 12:52pmWeb
Show threadPwlDec 26
@geraldew it seems that most Linux releases give it automatically but in general I believe that anything that can make you stop and think before acting, eg needing to change user, prevents many errors
Show threadPwlDec 26
@geraldew it seems that most Linux releases give it automatically but in general I believe that anything that can make you stop and think before acting, eg needing to change user, prevents many errors
Show threadFabian TranschelDec 26

@geraldew Maybe I misread the question, so to clarify: Do you mean by "admin account" the root user or a separate user entity in addition to your "normal user".

If yes, I'd say this is generally not necessary, but I'd be interested to hear why you'd think so.

Show threadgeraldewDec 26

@ftranschel so when I started the habit, the admin account was literally root.

When I adopted Ubuntu in 2006 that instead became an account with sudo rights.

Show threadgeraldewDec 26
@ftranschel don't know that I ever thought it was necessary, more that the separation was useful. In some respects by technically preventing things but maybe as much in separating the behaviours.
Show threadPwlDec 26
@geraldew yes
Show threadMatthew MartinDec 26

@geraldew there is an xkcd comic about this. At this point all credentials malicious users want to steal are in the browser & spread across remote machines.

https://xkcd.com/1200/

Authorization

xkcd
Show threadlemgandiDec 26

@geraldew I usually disable sudo(8) on my Linux boxes in favor of a root account with a password, separate from my user account. This has kept me from breaking systems at least a couple of times, and it is more secure than sudo access on your user account.

Of course I also have remote login as root disabled. So for root access you need both user account access and the root password.

Caveat: I been using Linux since Slackware in the early 90's, and Unix professionally before that.