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Root as Primary Login: Why Not?
A user writes, "I help moderate a forum dealing with Mac OS X, and I'm having an awful time convincing a fair portion of our readers that logging in as root all the time is a Really Bad Idea. Worse, though, are the ones who try to convince others to log in as root all the time, claiming it's 'more Mac-OS-9-like,' or saying 'it's not really more insecure,' or even that 'a firewall should deter hackers pretty well.' I know all the standard arguments, but they're not working out. Does anyone here have some real-world anecdotes that I can point to?"
"...claiming it's 'more Mac-OS-9-like,' "
Nope. Not at all. OS 9 has the same level of protection for itself that OS X does, it just works a bit differently. Tell your friends to try this... In OS 9, drag your System Folder to the trash. Go on, do it. Whupps - you can't. Why? Because you don't have 'permission' to. You can only do it if you boot from a different source, like a CD or another volume. Unix does this far better than OS 9 could, but it's basically the same idea. Logging in as ROOT lets you do anything you want. Toss your kernel? SURE!!! No problem! BAD idea. I feel that if someone doesn't know why they shouldn't be root, that alone is reason enough for them NOT to be.