Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2000 21:23:29 -0500 From: "Christopher S. Weimann" <cweimann@wallnet.com> To: Olaf Hoyer <ohoyer@fbwi.fh-wilhelmshaven.de>, David Kelly <dkelly@hiwaay.net> Cc: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Why I Don't Do Linux Message-ID: <20000210212329.A4718@wallnet.com> In-Reply-To: <4.1.20000211014526.00cc8730@mail.rz.fh-wilhelmshaven.de>; from Olaf Hoyer on Fri, Feb 11, 2000 at 01:48:29AM %2B0100 References: <v04220807b4c8f064200f@[10.0.0.20]> <4.1.20000211014526.00cc8730@mail.rz.fh-wilhelmshaven.de>
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On Fri, Feb 11, 2000 at 01:48:29AM +0100, Olaf Hoyer wrote: > Hi! > > With regards to Richard Stallman... I think I remember some lines where he > said that in a Lab he worked some party decided to take over all the > computing power, and he finally got it back by patching the kernel... He > said he'd not known how to do this on a Linux... > The following is from the info page for su. Why GNU `su' does not support the `wheel' group =============================================== (This section is by Richard Stallman.) Sometimes a few of the users try to hold total power over all the rest. For example, in 1984, a few users at the MIT AI lab decided to seize power by changing the operator password on the Twenex system and keeping it secret from everyone else. (I was able to thwart this coup and give power back to the users by patching the kernel, but I wouldn't know how to do that in Unix.) However, occasionally the rulers do tell someone. Under the usual `su' mechanism, once someone learns the root password who sympathizes with the ordinary users, he or she can tell the rest. The "wheel group" feature would make this impossible, and thus cement the power of the rulers. I'm on the side of the masses, not that of the rulers. If you are used to supporting the bosses and sysadmins in whatever they do, you might find this idea strange at first. -- ------------------------------------------------------------ Christopher Weimann SysAdmin 400 Higgins Ave Wall Internet LLC. Brielle NJ, 08730 Serving almost all of New Jersey 732-223-1777 ------------------------------------------------------------ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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