{"id":358,"date":"2008-04-17T08:53:21","date_gmt":"2008-04-17T15:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bspcn.com\/2008\/04\/17\/the-7-habits-of-highly-effective-linux-users\/"},"modified":"2011-03-24T13:03:03","modified_gmt":"2011-03-24T20:03:03","slug":"the-7-habits-of-highly-effective-linux-users","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/2008\/04\/17\/the-7-habits-of-highly-effective-linux-users\/","title":{"rendered":"The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Linux Users"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Rami Taibah<\/a>\"Passing<\/p>\n

Switching to Linux can be very daunting, most seasoned Linux users experienced that first hand. After all, at some point they were also “noobs”. However, the Linux community has excelled in making the switch for beginners as easy as possible by providing guides, howtos, tweaks, and general advocacy articles. When I first made the switch 3 years ago, I found the community welcoming me with open hands on forums, IRC channels, and E-mail, I was surprised how helpful these penguins were!<\/p>\n

For this, I feel obliged to give back to the community that has always been there for me. To pass down the torch to newer Linux generations. Over here I compiled a list of 7 habits that I wish someone told me when I started out. I believe that getting into these habits will make the Linux experience more secure, convenient, educational, and ultimately more enjoyable.<\/p>\n

1-Never Login Using ‘root’<\/em><\/h3>\n

If there was one habit that one should strictly abide by, it’s probably this one. Most of us come from a Windows background, and we have the notion that more power is better, so we login using our administrator accounts. Well let me tell you my friend, that this is a major reason that Windows is plagued with viruses and insecurities, half the world is currently running ‘root’<\/em><\/span> accounts!\"SuseWith great power comes great responsibility, and with ‘root’<\/em><\/span> powers you should be aware of the consequences of EVERYTHING you’re doing, and even then, mistakes happen<\/a>. I remember my beginnings with SUSE Linux, there were lot of administrative tasks I needed to do but had no idea how to go about them without the GUI, so I so innocently log out and login onto the ‘root<\/em><\/span>‘ GUI. The default wallpaper of the ‘root<\/em>‘ GUI on SUSE were lit fuse bombs tiled beside each other. Back then, the symbolism totally flew over my head, coming from a Windows background, I wasn’t really doing anything wrong.<\/p>\n

But what are the dangers of logging in as root?<\/p>\n

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  1. Well imagine you’re on the trapeze without a safety net, frightening isn’t it? Well that’s effectively what you are doing when you login as root, you can inadvertently hose your whole system<\/li>\n
  2. You are at the risk of running malware. Any program that is started under root mode will automatically be given root privileges<\/li>\n
  3. If there is a common security hole that hasn’t been patched yet, you could be totally “pwned”<\/li>\n
  4. It’s common Unix convention, never run anything in root mode unless absolutely necessary. If a non-admin program asks for root access, you should be suspicious<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Generally, instead of logging onto your root GUI, use any of the following techniques:<\/p>\n