Torvalds Calls OpenSUSE Security 'Too Intrusive'

jfruh writes "The balance between security and ease of use is always a tricky one to strike, and Linux distros tend to err on the side of caution. But no less a luminary than Linus Torvalds thinks openSUSE has gone too far. When his kid needed to call from school for the root password just so he could add a printer to a laptop, that's when Linus decided things had gone off the rails."

Comments

Too much root is not a good thing

[Toe, The]

I see this on Macs a lot. If you want to install anything, you have to type an administrator's password.

In theory, that's great. But in effect, you are giving that installer root access. So if I understand correctly, that installer could be putting any amount of spyware (or whatever) into your computer and nearly perfectly cover its tracks.

Otoh, many Mac apps are distributed as disk images, where you simply drag them from the image to your drive, and that's it. No password at all. If you're going to use pre-rolled software, that certainly seems more trustworthy. But of course, it is a lot more complicated of a process for the average user to be able to ever understand.

What an ass

[MatthiasF]

He could have just added the user to the sudo group and been done.

But no, he had to go harping on everyone on bug lists and social media rants to put people down, even suggesting whoever made the system should die.

What an ass.

Re:What an ass

[Hatta]

Why should he have to do that? Why isn't it sufficient to add the user to the 'lp' group? There's no reason that printing should require root access at all.

Re:What an ass

[OzPeter]

Why should he have to do that? Why isn't it sufficient to add the user to the 'lp' group? There's no reason that printing should require root access at all.

Why does an administrator have to add anyone to anything in order to do a commonplace task on a machine that is really a commodity item?
 
Not that I have read his rants but I get where he is coming from.