Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Tue, 24 Apr 2001 10:30:28 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Tue, 24 Apr 2001 10:30:08 -0400 Received: from router-100M.swansea.linux.org.uk ([194.168.151.17]:25100 "EHLO the-village.bc.nu") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Tue, 24 Apr 2001 10:30:04 -0400 Subject: Re: [PATCH] Single user linux To: imel96@trustix.co.id Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 15:30:32 +0100 (BST) Cc: alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk (Alan Cox), viro@math.psu.edu (Alexander Viro), linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org In-Reply-To: from "imel96@trustix.co.id" at Apr 24, 2001 09:10:27 PM X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL1] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: From: Alan Cox Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org > > Even my digital tv box has multiple users. The fact you cannot figure out how > > to make your UI present that to the end user in a suitable manner is not > > the kernels problem. Get a real UI designer > > if it's useful, it's okay. if not, what is it doing there? For one it allowing you to build enough of a security model to prevent your phone user from deleting critical system files by accident. Something incredibly basic that I cannot believe anyone could overlook Take a look why my Digital TV has multiple users - It can charge pay per view films to multiple accounts (think about multiple SIM cards) - It remembers personal barriers (so I can require passwords to watch adult rated films for example) (For a phone think about call barring - set the phone user and loan it for calls home only to children) - It remembers preferences. (Currently only useful for junk sky interactive stuff like email) (think about multiple email accounts) And it has a perfectly sane UI for all of this. In fact most people have probably never realised their set top box even has the concept of users in it because they've never set more than one up. Another reason your device needs good security models is that if I can't store digital credit card data safely on it, its a dead product line soon. If it can't do internet its an ex product. How do you plan to do internet without a security model in your OS. How are you going to protect credit card data from web browser bugs. How are you going to protect that data from sms parsing bugs ? How do you plan to deal with synchronizing data between multiple systems when you have no user model ? The questions you should be asking are not 'Why do I need a security model' they are 'Is the model provided good enough'. Alan - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/