CVAlkan Member

Registered: Nov 2012 Location: Northwest suburbs of Chicago Distribution: Ubuntu 14.04 & 16.04 LTS; Android; Fedora Posts: 199

Original Poster

Rep:

Hi Widget:



Well, thanks much for the Lecture, Mom, but it would be more helpful if you could provide some explanation of why the behavior only began recently occuring so that I can (shudder) FIX IT.



I'm pretty well aware of the security issues, having first used Unix (AT&T's very own) in the early days, as well as lots of variants along the way (including Microsoft's Xenix), and before graphical user interfaces became de riguer. And I wrote my first (albeit rather simple) "program" in the late 1960s on a Univac. And, just incidentally, I also used Microsoft Windows in our lab BEFORE version 3.0 came out to run some test equipment control software whose name escapes me at the moment.



But, I'm old and cranky. And I'm somewhat lazy. And, although I still enjoy playing with computers, I actually use my machine (my own private machine) as a "tool" rather than a hobby. And I have pretty decent physical security (a lot more reliable IMHO than any password scheme I've seen implemented to date) and only connect to the internet when I need to (like asking about some behavioral quirk I haven't run into before).



In spite of your patronizing blather, by the way, you seem to be blissfully unaware that Unix was originally designed as a SINGLE USER operating system (hence the "uni" in the name if you have any etymological curiosity), mainly because of the annoying security overhead in Multics (the "x" in Unix was a play on the "ics" in Multics) that was related to the fact that it supported multiple users. Unix's conversion to a multi-user operating system, ironic as that was, only came later. So, my solution to the particular security issue you refer to - a perfectly adequate one for my needs - is simply to do away with the other users.



By the way, your comment "Auto login is very nice if you admire the security of monolithic operating systems such as Windows." is technically known as a non-sequitur.



So, again, thanks for the advice. Hopefully, someone else who actually knows something can actually answer my question or provide some suggestions.