From: nospam@needed.invalid   
      
   On Sat, 10/25/2025 8:06 AM, s|b wrote:   
      
   >   
   > That's a bit overwhelming. If we would choose some obscure distribution,   
   > let's say Tiny11, I would imagine there would be less support than for   
   > instance Linux Mint. That's not good, is it?   
   >   
      
   I guess I'm not doing a good job on the analogies.   
      
   As a helper, as an initial skill, you should read up   
   on what the "standard procedure is".   
      
   Let's use as an example, someone drops by your help center.   
   They say   
      
      "I have a new printer. How do you install those, anyway ?"   
      
   And you, having read the official page for it, follow the   
   procedure, make sure CUPS is installed, and then use some   
   dialog pointed at port 631 and start the printer install.   
      
   Now, maybe the printer is a tough one, and requires a   
   few minutes search on Google to determine "status on   
   July 2025 printer that just arrived". Or, it's an existing   
   printer (like the one I bought, an end of line), and   
   the driver is mature. The customer leaves happy.   
      
   Six months pass. Something happens to the printer. You're   
   not available. They go to the Linux Cafe for help. The helper   
   there asks "how did he install it?". The customer replies   
   "he used the standard procedure". The helper then has a context   
   and the customer does their best to fill in the anecdotal bits.   
      
   That's better than the customer saying, "Oh, s|b hacked it in   
   with some custom assembler code, but I don't have the code   
   he used." That's going to considerably complicate the situation.   
   Who knows what the assembler code damaged while it worked?   
      
   There is no end to the complexity a potential situation could raise.   
   There would be questions here nobody could answer. They could   
   likely answer them when sitting in front of the machine   
   and looking around, as sometimes all it takes is one hint   
   from a look around, to figure it out. The knowledge tree   
   starts with a solid knowledge of the fundamentals underneath.   
   It's the same way we learn maths.   
      
   Try using the OS with just sudo. The machines are most likely   
   to be single user, there won't be situations where john peeps   
   at mary's files using sudo.   
      
   sudo can be restricted to only allowing "mount" and "umount"   
   as privileged activities. That was more likely to be the   
   intended usage of sudo in UNIX days. The UNIX box didn't come   
   with sudo enabled. You installed it and edited the sudoers file   
   with a "blessed" editor. And those are the privileges I   
   was given back in the day, all I was allowed was "mount" and "umount".   
   Sudo activites were logged, and sent to the administrator.   
   (If you were abusing it, someone might notice.)   
      
   If you did become root, by adding the password, as root you   
   could edit the sudoers file and restrict the activities of others.   
      
   As long as the disk isn't encrypted, I'm willing to bet you can   
   always exploit it. Using things like chroot, from a boot key.   
      
      Paul   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)