Some of these are Unix problems and some are Apple specific, but either way, theyâre all inexcusable for personal computers. Permissions just donât work right. OS X is picky and inconsistent with its implementation of them, which does little more than wallpaper over the problems inherent in desktop Unix use.
First off is Users. Maybe a handful of Unix geeks have their own definition of the word âuser,â but for the other 99 percent of the world, a âuserâ is an actual, individual human being who uses the computer.
Die-hard Unix fans repeat after me: âThe âsystemâ is not a âuserâ. Neither is âdaemonâ or ânobodyâ.â
Apple almost realized this by showing only the human users on the login screen and the accounts preference pane, but it is far too obvious that non-user users are still there -- they still show up in the âGet Infoâ window, and more importantly, they can still âownâ files.
Second on the list is groups. Either there are groups or their arenât. If there are, they need to be set from the accounts preference pane, and more importantly, there should be no groups other than the ones you create. This avoids the all too common âWhat the f**k is this âwheelâ group?â If there are not going to be groups, they need to be removed completely. That means no âgroupâ or âgroup accessâ settings for files. Put them in, or take them out. You canât have it both ways; that just ends up being confusing.
Third on the list is system files. The permissions system is not the way to keep people from messing with system files. Moving Little Johnnyâs book report by typing an administrator password makes sense. Deleting the entire system folder this way does not. Do we get it? Good.
Lastly, permissions should have no relation to the operability of the system. The system should work just as well no matter who âownsâ the files. I repair computers for one guy who, when he couldnât delete a file from his system, set himself as the owner of the entire hard drive. Given that he was the only user of the computer, this shouldnât be a problem. Why, then, does the system fall apart when this happens? (Even repairing permissions doesnât get the job done -- I had to manually set the permissions of countless system files to match my iBook before it stared working again) That is a problem. It needs to be fixed, not excused.
Iâll stop ranting now, but itâs problems like this that are the reason that 95% of the computers out there donât use Unix variants on the desktop. If enterprise and large-scale networking need these arcane âfeaturesâ, make a separate client for the end user who just wants to be able to manage Word documents without messages like âCould not delete this file because it is owned by nobody.â. Or does ânobodyâ see a problem with that?
First off is Users. Maybe a handful of Unix geeks have their own definition of the word âuser,â but for the other 99 percent of the world, a âuserâ is an actual, individual human being who uses the computer.
Die-hard Unix fans repeat after me: âThe âsystemâ is not a âuserâ. Neither is âdaemonâ or ânobodyâ.â
Apple almost realized this by showing only the human users on the login screen and the accounts preference pane, but it is far too obvious that non-user users are still there -- they still show up in the âGet Infoâ window, and more importantly, they can still âownâ files.
Second on the list is groups. Either there are groups or their arenât. If there are, they need to be set from the accounts preference pane, and more importantly, there should be no groups other than the ones you create. This avoids the all too common âWhat the f**k is this âwheelâ group?â If there are not going to be groups, they need to be removed completely. That means no âgroupâ or âgroup accessâ settings for files. Put them in, or take them out. You canât have it both ways; that just ends up being confusing.
Third on the list is system files. The permissions system is not the way to keep people from messing with system files. Moving Little Johnnyâs book report by typing an administrator password makes sense. Deleting the entire system folder this way does not. Do we get it? Good.
Lastly, permissions should have no relation to the operability of the system. The system should work just as well no matter who âownsâ the files. I repair computers for one guy who, when he couldnât delete a file from his system, set himself as the owner of the entire hard drive. Given that he was the only user of the computer, this shouldnât be a problem. Why, then, does the system fall apart when this happens? (Even repairing permissions doesnât get the job done -- I had to manually set the permissions of countless system files to match my iBook before it stared working again) That is a problem. It needs to be fixed, not excused.
Iâll stop ranting now, but itâs problems like this that are the reason that 95% of the computers out there donât use Unix variants on the desktop. If enterprise and large-scale networking need these arcane âfeaturesâ, make a separate client for the end user who just wants to be able to manage Word documents without messages like âCould not delete this file because it is owned by nobody.â. Or does ânobodyâ see a problem with that?