Re: ntdll: add a warning about running wine as root (resend)

[James Mckenzie]

David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Sent: Feb 9, 2009 7:45 AM
> To: wine-devel(a)winehq.org
> Subject: Re: ntdll: add a warning about running wine as root (resend)
>
> 2009/2/9 James Mckenzie <jjmckenzie51(a)earthlink.net>:
> > Thus, the need for the warning.  Experts tend to know what they are doing, newbies don't for the >>most part.  And yes, I borked many a system as a newbie and as an expert (building kernels for >>RedHat/Fedora for my Thinkpad.
>
> Yep. The problem is that newbies are coming from Windows - (a) where
> the answer to inability to do something is to try again as
> administrator (b) which sometimes takes precautions to keep you from
> shooting your foot off.

Which is why most establishments have disabled users from having access to Administrator level functions.
> Solutions:
>
> 1. Get better newbies. (Strikes me as unlikely.)

I agree and the situation is getting worse rather than better.  We have to be able to gently guide newbies from causing harm to themselves.  Sort of like handing a new soldier an unloaded weapon and telling them it is.  This is what the warning should do.  If a newbie carries on, then they 'have been warned' and they cannot blame Wine for causing harm to their system.
> 2. Something to help stop them shooting their foot off that won't
> hamper those who really want to do this.

Again, the one-time warning should suffice.  This can set a Registry value so the warning will not display again in that WINEPREFIX.  Experts will just ignore the message whereas newbies might just heed it and stop.  Then again, some won't.

James McKenzie