[P1] Logging in as root

[Meg St. Clair]

On 2/2/03 5:59 PM, "lbdesigns at earthlink.net" <lbdesigns at earthlink.net>
wrote:

> 
> On Sunday, February 2, 2003, at 01:29  PM, Meg St. Clair wrote:
> 
>> Now, my question:
>> what bad things am I going to make happen? How bad could it be? Could
>> I do
>> something that a reinstall won't fix? I'm really not trying to be flip.
> 
> It's not just the bad things that you might make happen by deleting the
> wrong files or exploring different settings. You could unknowingly
> cause a security problem. If you run apps/services as root, that could
> cause unexpected changes to configuration that could cause problems for
> your normal admin or other user accounts. If you have an always-on
> internet connection, this could be especially risky.

Okay, I don't know enough about Unix to completely understand everything
you've just mentioned. However, the fact that logging on as root with an
always on connection could futz things up, even if I do nothing else gives
me pause. I'm pretty certain that I can avoid deleting files that are
necessary. I had not considered the things that the system was doing behind
the scenes.

Thank you very much for you explanation. It really helps.

Meg