Quote:
Originally Posted by rlaconte
geoffro, I appreciate the benefit that unix password protection affords. For people who use a computer for important things whether at work or at home, it is foolish to try to bypass it. But I've been retired for over 20 years and use my computer strictly for fun. It is essentially a toy with which I play. There is absolutely nothing on it of any value, not even my real name. Without any data to lose or dependence on the machine for anything but enjoyment, entering the root password is just an annoying interruption. Especially in my case. I don't use my comp to play games or look at videos, etc. I test software and try to learn the computer's capabilities. So I require root privileges much more often than people who do useful things.
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If you are not connected to the Net or you don't mind the risk of shooting yourself in the foot, feel free to run as root. Most likely nothing will happen, but then again, the need to run as root is much less than people seem to imagine. Especially if you are just "testing software". If you had said experimenting with hardware I might agree you have some justification. It also prevents you from learning about the Unix/Linux permission system.
However to clear a misconception, what is valuable to intruders is not just your data, but your computer's connections. Sure, some identity details would be nice to steal, but even without sensitive data a computer connected to a broadband connection makes a nice spam spreading machine.