Usability issues - root user/user accounts

["Pfaffenberger, Bryan" <bp virginia edu>]

GNOME will attract many users who are not familiar with Unix-like operating
systems, and I'm concerned that they'll have a tough time with root and user
accounts. Thanks to the new alerts, these users will realize that they
shouldn't operate their computers as the root user. But they'll encounter
difficulties when they attempt to create a user account for themselves. At
the moment, the GNOME menus have nothing to offer; they'll have to hunt for
linuxconf, which presents them with far more complexity than they're
prepared to deal with. And once they log on as user, sound goes away --
unless they're knowledgeable enough to start a terminal session, switch to
superuser, start esd, and minimize the terminal window. Presumably there's a
fix for this?

Here's one suggestion. When GNOME starts for the first time in root, users
see a wizard that briefly explains the the purpose of the root user and the
need for creating a user account. Subsequently, the wizard guides users
through the creation of one or more user accounts, and restarts GNOME in a
selected user account. Thanks to this wizard, users will not spend a great
deal of time configuring and customizing their root desktop, only to find
that they shouldn't use this desktop for everyday computing.

--Bryan


Bryan Pfaffenberger
Associate Professor of Technology, Culture, and Communication
School of Engineering and Applied Science
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22903
bp@virginia.edu | http://pfaff.seas.virginia.edu/bp