[X Newbies] How the Grinch Stole 45GB of My Hard Drive

[Michael Winter]

On Saturday, November 30, 2002, at 12:08  PM, Kirk McElhearn wrote:

> IMHO, if they're not comfortable with the Terminal, they shouldn't be
> logging in as root...

I think the opposite is true. If you're not comfortable using the CLI 
you should definitely use the GUI tools you are familiar with and can 
use without fear of making a mistake. I see nothing wrong with 
temporarily enabling the root account to perform some tasks that you 
don't know how to do using the CLI. Even for those people comfortable 
with the CLI, have you ever noticed how often CLI solutions given in 
lists like this have followups describing a corrected or "better" way 
of doing things to avoid potentially unforeseen consequences?

IMO, sudo in the hands of an inexperienced CLI user is more dangerous 
than root in the hands of an experienced GUI user. Many shades of gray 
exist in between.

-Mike