Re: SuSe 10.0 woes: /home disappeared

Rajko M. wrote:
houghi wrote:
[...]
It is something I really would like to see on SUSE. Now you are by default able to look in other peoples directories.

Not a good idea, if you ask me. :-(


I agree.

The problem is that people arriving from OS that has different security
concept like OS/2, or with explicit default configuration design flaws like
some other OS, can find Linux, that demands some selfdiscipline and few
thoughts, difficult to manage.

The security concept in OS/2 is that you know what you're doing. :-) You can set up a multi-user system on OS/2, but the default (from Warp 4 on)is single user. It appears that IBM assumed that Warp4 would be used as a server OS, not on desktops. In fact, they quite explicitly withdrew from supporting OS/2 as a desktop OS.

That is the same in the real life. When you go outside you don't trust every passant? You don't give your ID, car keys, home keys to everyone to see or use.

I agree that you don't want other users to see your folders without first giving explicit permission. But that's part of a larger issue. The real issue is usability.

What I want, among other things, is the ability to drag'n'drop to any folder available/visible to me as user, ie both private and public (common) folder(s). That's all. And I see no reason why any user shouldn't be able to set up common folders - that's not an operation that needs to be reserved for /root. (IMO, the default should be Public folder that's visible to every user, and automatic creation of a subfolder for each user.) Read/write permissions should be attached to the files, not the public folders: default should be read-only for other users, unless I explicitly tag a file with read/write permissions. Opportunity to modify permissions should be a sub-menu item in all Save dialogues in every app, and should be implemented in every distribution. If I'm dumb enough to allow read-write on a file I shouldn't have, well, that's my problem.

Frankly, I don't care squat what the developers of Debian/SuSe/RedHat/etc/etc think is the Best Way to do something. I want standards, and I want certain useability features. Everything else is secondary. (Standards are needed because most user operations are not intuitive, and must become habitual - only some arbitrary standard will make this possible.) From the p.o.v of a user, the purpose of an OS is to provide a stable platform for two things, and two things only:

a) easy access to and installation of applications;
b) easy access to and control over file storage.

The Linux community seems to be unable or unwilling to keep those two requirements paramount.

I'll give you an example: While SuSe was still working, I "imported" pictures from a CD into the photo-album app (I forget its name). I then wanted to see those same photos in GIMP, and play with them. I couldn't find them. I was able to start a slide show fronm the photo-album app, and I was able to set one of the imported pictures as wall-paper from the same app. But it was not at all obvious how I could get at them with GIMP. Now, don't tell me that I should have read some docs more thoroughly, either: "Imported" pictures should be accessible with a mouseclick or two, from any graphics app, period. Not being able to do that is a serious design flaw.

And I don't care squat whether the design flaw is in SuSe, or in GIMP, or in the photo-app, or at some level of the OS: when I open GIMP, I should be presented with a list of all the folders visible to me that have pictures in them -- and that has to include the folder into which the photo-app imported the pictures. And when I click on such a folder, I should get a nice pane of thumbnails from which I can open any picture I choose.

Now, I suppose someone will tell me that Linux is Really A Server OS. So what? From a network admin's p.o.v, there is only one additional requirement:
c) easy access to and control over network resources and security.

Well, access shouldn't be all that easy, but once logged on as network admin, it should be easy. "Control over" implies several levels of access to the OS and the hardware, as needed, and access to lower levels should require more permissions: there has to be a hierarchy of users at the admin level, too.

It's not enough to have a technically superb, versatile, and utterly stable product -- all of which Linux is. If the Linux community doesn't pay attention to the Ordinary Users and their needs and desires, the dream of replacing You Know Who with open source OSs and software will fail.

HTH


PS: I will be installing SuSe again, later today. I will certainly have lots more questions. I found the documentation somewhat, er, um, sparse, shall we say. :-)
.

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