linuxgeek: Re: [LINUX_Newbies] I hate passwords

I hate to say this, but Linux is not for everyone. If you do not like passwords then use something else. I know how to do what you want, but it goes against everything that I have learned since I started Linux in 1999, and I will not play this game. It is counter to the way Linux works and is built. It is counter to good practise and it opens up a security can of worms that if everyone used would give Linux as bad a name as other OSes which are known for security vulnerabilities.

Linux is meant to be secure with a sandboxed and protected area for the OS and a separate level for the userspace. It has built in permissions controls that reflect this thinking. Linux is used on the world's most powerful supercomputers and is known for its security with good reason. It is time tested and invariably comes out on top on independent studies and hacker competitions because of the way it is built. Not using a password opens your computer up to anybody with harmful intent and there are people who are waiting in the wings to find any report of Linux being weak to use it against open source.

People need to think of the broader implications of assisting any user to counter built in security that is meant to be in place for valid reasons. We are shooting ourselves in the foot if we assist and are potentially biting the hand that feeds us. Linux has always been under threat from Microsoft and other companies that compete against us and they are looking for any excuse to smear Linux's good name.

I know how this may offend some of you who like to be friendly and helpful, but it needs to be said, IMO.

Roy

On Wednesday, August 13, 2014 9:47:55 AM, "Joan Leach jleach728@sbcglobal.net [LINUX_Newbies]" <LINUX_Newbies@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Below...

From: "ralph.bagwell@gmail.com [LINUX_Newbies]" <LINUX_Newbies@yahoogroups.com>
To: LINUX_Newbies@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2014 2:33 PM
Subject: Re: [LINUX_Newbies] I hate passwords

Thank you but I do not know what "typing into word processing" means. I AM a newbie at Linux - I did do some Google searching for that term with no results that helped. I understand no way that any "copy and paste" from anything could eliminate an operating system requirement for password use. Maybe that is some kind of program that inserts a string with a keystroke .Donno - but thanks anyway.

Ralph
===
This was posted on another Yahoo Linux Group:
Joan in Reno

"It seems Pandora's Box has already been opened and cannot be closed.

Though I think autologin capability is one of the most idiotic ideas
implemented in Linux copying Microsoft's Windows' capability, it seems
a lot of people want to do it and are willing to accept the risks.

I sternly admonished my best friend's wife when I discovered autologin
was enabled on her Ubuntu system when I fixed the system after it seemed
the laptop's hard drive had vanished as you can read in my article
(pre-NEO (which infected Groups 18 AUG 2013)):

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/linux/message/59964
Tue Jan 3, 2012 2:26 am
"Unusual Ubuntu 9.10 failure and my fixes"

Everyone should read the above article if you haven't already done
so because you'll read what happens when you yank a USB thumb drive
out of the system causing a hard drive to be erased from the system
and how I easily fixed it.

and here's how you *MUST* reference that article nowadays:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/linux/conversations/messages/59964

it's poorly-formatted due to how the hot steaming pile of pig poop HTML5
NEO displays messages from Yahoo's groups' archives.

Clean and 100%-originally-formatted articles can be retrieved from this
group's message archives using the technique Ed described here earlier
this year which proves the message archives are in fact intact despite
NEO's brain-dead HTML5 abortion.

Googling "how to auto login linux" finds these and 1000s more:

http://www.linfo.org/automatic_login.html

http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/42359/how-can-i-autologin-to-desktop-with-systemd

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=208&t=124779

http://forum.linuxbsdos.com/topic/40/how-to-enable-auto-login-in-linux-mint-cinnamon

Enabling auto-login in RHEL6:
https://www.redhat.com/archives/rhelv6-list/2011-June/msg00048.html

Login automatically to KDE when the computer starts
http://linux.about.com/od/kubuntu_doc/a/kubudg35t03.htm

Caveat emptor.

Thad"