F10 and no root login - impossible to maintain systems!

[Rahul Sundaram]

Benjamin LaHaise wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 08:29:33AM +0530, Rahul Sundaram wrote:
>> You can at run level 3. You can even start X after that.
> 
> You're assuming all users of a system are technical.  That is not the case.

Non technical users shouldn't be logging in as root and more so X. They 
should be either launching graphical programs that ask for a password or 
use su - or sudo. It an potentially be made easier by giving them a 
"administrator shell" or something like that in the menu which launches 
the terminal and asks for a root/sudo password but it would be better to 
understand why it is ever needed and solve that issue in a perhaps more 
elegant way.

What are the specific use cases, where non technical users are being 
compelled to login as root (and other alternatives won't work)?

Rahul