Re: GNOME Usability Improvements - Fix the window manager!

[Lauris Kaplinski <lauris ariman ee>]

I think, that before adressing many system administration problems we have
to work out something like 'GNOME security model'.
I.e. what should remain to distro makers and what belongs to GNOME.
There are several problematic packages:
- Gnorpm
- gnome-ppp
- mount applet
etc. etc.
I think, that GNOME should not try to implement system administration
tasks itself. No GNOME program should have suid bits set (terminal is
one possible exception) etc. Distribution makers should take care, that
floppies/cdroms are user mountable, that ordinary users can start ppp link
etc. If distro makers decide to make specific GNOME program suid root, it
should be their decision, not GNOME default behaviour. GNOME should only
give suggestions.
Such tasks as printer configuration on personal workstation should not
need root permissions. These can be solved with clever user/group
setup and this is completely distro maker's work.

Lauris

On 3 Aug 1999, Elliot Lee wrote:

> On 30 Jul 1999 04:46:28 -0400, Kent Nyberg <kent@wlug.westbo.se> wrote:
> 
> >You know RedHat's Printtool? Create a control-center capplet WRT it.
> >This will require root permissions, so some way to access root will need
> >to be coded, possibly as a library, so every GNOME app can have secure
> >access to restricted settings and files.
> 
> System administration is not meant to go into the control center, which is
> more for per-user settings (e.g. to give the user total control over how
> their environment works). We do need system administration tools, but that's
> another project... :)
>