Admin user

[Andrew Robinson]

Here is a question for all you Unix savvy people:

Well, OS X is an officially certified type of UNIX, so I guess in this case
that's me... and you!


> I am told over and over not to work as an Admin-enabled user in Mac OS X,
> for security reasons.
>
> What strikes me as odd is that very often when I want to install a program,
> it asks me to enter an admin password (even Ableton Live does it, when
> installing the trial version).
>
> So in that moment, I am giving the installer admin privileges, no matter
> what kind of user I am logged in as.
>
> so what's better about not working as an admin user?
>

If you were an admin user, you wouldn't get asked for that admin password.
The reason it's better not to be admin all the time is that if some nasty
software tries to install itself, you want a chance to say no. Admin users
don't get that chance.


> I understand that "Admin" is something different from "root" that needs to
> be enabled separately?
>

There can be more than 1 admin user, there can only be 1 root user. Root
also has other meanings (source of the file system, immortal alchemist etc.)


> Where is a link that explains account-security to a Mac user?
>

 For a Mac user, we've pretty much covered it in this conversation. If
you're a mac admin, or a mac programmer, there's more, but for a user it
pretty much boils down to "don't log in as admin, and think before you type
an admin password in"

- Andy_R
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