me idiot updated calibre

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by twowheels

Spoiler:

It's quite easy, I don't have to log-out and log back in. Linux is very flexible, everything is harder in Windows if you know your way around a computer. (I'm a software developer and have used both Windows and Linux since they each respectively first came out, and other Unix OSes before Linux existed [even working as a developer on a Unix OS before Linux], so I think that I can say I know my way around a computer)

You can have multiple full GUI environments running at once, each as a different user, if you want, and switch almost instantly with a very simple <CTRL><ALT><F#> (where # is the virutal desktop it's running on) keystroke, or if you're a command line user like me you can just open a terminal and prefix your modifying commands with (sudo -u <user> <command>), which is basically the same way that you get administrator (root) permissions, you prefix commands with sudo. If you want to run a single GUI program as one user and another GUI program as another user on the same GUI desktop you can.

Remember, I do this for files that are not actively changing and I don't want to get messed up, so it's not an every-day thing, but ensures that I cannot mess up my long term archived files by accident.

Thanks for the explanation. I've never used Linux and tried to imagine your way of doing things on Windows...

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I have no idea about Linux, but I cannot imagine using Windows without admin access, and have not done so in all the years I've had personal computers. Can you even update Calibre with an ordinary user account?

You need Admin privileges , which is NOT the same as running AS ADMIN (root in Linux).
When PRIVILEGE IS NEEDED, you click Allow in UAC
In Linux you SU (super use) to do Admin type tasks.


SU or UAC unlocks the door for the task. It does not run with all the doors or windows wide open

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by theducks

You need Admin privileges , which is NOT the same as running AS ADMIN (root in Linux).
When PRIVILEGE IS NEEDED, you click Allow in UAC
In Linux you SU (super use) to do Admin type tasks.


SU or UAC unlocks the door for the task. It does not run with all the doors or windows wide open

Well, I've always had only one account on my tablets and laptops, because I've always been the only one to ever use them. Don't see the point in creating other accounts. I have no kids and the only person living with me is my mother who wouldn't know which side of a device is up and which down (she's electronically totally illiterate - no interest in learning either).

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Well, I've always had only one account on my tablets and laptops, because I've always been the only one to ever use them. Don't see the point in creating other accounts. I have no kids and the only person living with me is my mother who wouldn't know which side of a device is up and which down (she's electronically totally illiterate - no interest in learning either).

Windows has 2 types of USER accounts: (a single user system MUST be ADMIN type)

The one without Admin privileges (they just get rejected if they try to install programs or change settings that are NOT theirs).

an Admin type user: This user is allowed to Elevate (UAC) for certain installs or settings.


The real ADMIN account needs boot time action to use. This leaves the whole session elevated

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by theducks

Windows has 2 types of USER accounts: (a single user system MUST be ADMIN type)

The one without Admin privileges (they just get rejected if they try to install programs or change settings that are NOT theirs).

an Admin type user: This user is allowed to Elevate (UAC) for certain installs or settings.


The real ADMIN account needs boot time action to use. This leaves the whole session elevated

Ah, I think I understand now. Thanks.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I have no idea about Linux, but I cannot imagine using Windows without admin access, and have not done so in all the years I've had personal computers. Can you even update Calibre with an ordinary user account?

That's where the UAC popup comes in in newer Windows versions. Or using sudo to run a Linux program. Or the administrator login in MacOSX (MacOSX also uses sudo for terminal sessions). You may need admin access for a specific task and it's descendants so you grant admin privileges for a limited task and then they disappear. Admittedly, it's taken a lot longer than I expected for Microsoft to come to grips with the least privilege concept.

Going back about 30 years, I was playing with Linux v0.12 (?) I accidentally mis-typed rm -rf ./ by leaving out the '.' so instead of deleting all files and directories below the current directory, I started removing everything from the root of the file system down. I had to regenerate both floppies that I was booting and running Linux from.