Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ucsfcgl!cca.ucsf.edu!wet!epsilon
From: epsilon@wet.UUCP (Eric P. Scott)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Ten Commandments of Personal Computing
Message-ID: <294@wet.UUCP>
Date: 18 Jul 89 19:52:21 GMT
References: <66667@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>
Reply-To: epsilon@wet.UUCP (Eric P. Scott)
Organization: Wetware Diversions, San Francisco
Lines: 23

I like to think things like my .profile/.login files are useful
and instructive, hence I always leave them readable.  I would not
appreciate someone mindlessly copying something they didn't
understand.  But there's a lot of "so THAT's how you do that" in
most timesharing systems.

Yes, you can run a large user base with "no file protection."  I
was a Nonconsortium Macsyma User until MIT-MC "went out of
business."  It requires a different attitude: cooperation.  I
consider it one of most significant influences on my system
management style: the machine's #1 priority is its own uptime.
What you do to each other ... is your responsibility.

Will the machine rat on you?  You bet.  Will it stand in the way
of legitimate activity?  Not if I can help it.  "No security" is
infinitely preferable to bungled security.  The vast majority of
systems I've seen have bungled security.  There were a lot of
times when I was hacking on something at 6:30 p.m. on a Friday ...
only to be screwed until Monday because someone else "forgot" to
make something essential available.

You've got to have trust.
					-=EPS=-