Re: [Usability]User Managment

[David Lazaro <david lazaro eresmas net>]

On Sun, 2002-08-18 at 22:13, Daniel Borgmann wrote:
> [...] 
> are there any plans to improve user managment?
> I think this is a big problem currently of GNOME. Unix user managment
> works great on the console, but there doesn't seem to be a convenient
> replacement for "su" on the desktop. This has a critical effect, as it
> forces home users either to rely on the terminal for certain tasks
> (don't tell me that a user never ever has to touch anything but his
> $HOME) or run as root all the time (or relogin as root for every single
> task). And as it is always suggested _not_ to use the root account in X,
> this is a problem.

I suppose that you are aware that on Red Hat systems GNOME uses a built
in service that pop ups a dialog to introduce the root password to
perform administrative tasks. It is a very convenient feature; it is in
fact *the* feature that made me switch from my old distribution (this
would not be disclosed in order that no one gets hurt :P ).

And, as you say:

> I asked someone to explain me how Apple solved it in OS X as I figured
> they would face the same problem. He told me that users can be
> "administrators" and the first user is an administrator by default.
> However, administrators still can't hose the filesystem, so it's not the
> "root" account. But they can do things on the GUI like installing
> software or changing the root and other user's passwords. Whenever they
> try to change systemfiles (in finder most probably), they are asked for
> this root password. And of course they can do sudo on the console (or su
> but this seems to be disabled by default). 

I find Apple's approach worth of consideration. Now what I would like to
see is a complete description of how it works, so that we can consider
it. Maybe they have their architecture described at the developers
section of the apple site. I'll check it tomorrow if nobody posts a link
first ;).

> Is there a chance that we see something like this in the near future in
> GNOME? I see a lot of people complaining that one of the problems of
> GNU/Linux on the desktop still is, that you can't do everything from the
> GUI. This might not be important for total beginners or companies (as
> they have administrators for this task), but for the typical desktop
> poweruser it certainly is.
> [...]

I agree: most users should be able to do little administrative tasks as
changing the system date and time. We do not want to have a UI problem
inherited from VCRs, do we? :P

We have to take into account that this has a lot of architectural
implications so, if done, it has the possibility of affecting many
layers of a system. Security is also primordial in this area making it
even more delicate. "Security topmost" should be the mantra.

A suggested planning for this could be:

   * Publish a suggested UI framework for handling administrative tasks.
   * Pass it down to the architecture people in order to consider an
implementation.
   * Evaluate and redesign until it has no vulnerabilities.
   * Implement and pass all the usual tests (security, specification
compliance, UI, etc).

But I also think that now, our first priority should be getting the HIG
1.0 out for once. You know guys: fix a target, destroy it, then another
one and also destroy it... ad infinitum. Military procedures tend to be
very effective... :)

Now, what do you think?