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Re:Is Sudo Almost Useless? by kempbellt on Tuesday June 09, 2020 @02:44PM (#23469423)
Training wheels on a bicycle make it more difficult for an inexperienced rider to accidentally fall over.

They don't stop people from intentionally doing it.

Re:Is Sudo Almost Useless? by nix23 on Tuesday June 09, 2020 @04:33PM (#23470588)
When he need's training-wells he need a training-machine (aka dev-envoirement), everyone can fall over, but not because of sudo prevents that, but typing 1000 times 'sudo' is the same like clicking that windows thing.

PS: And the cold sweat after typing something like 'rm -rfd /' is still the best training-well

Re:Is Sudo Almost Useless? by dependenttypes on Tuesday June 09, 2020 @03:11PM (#23469737)
Sudo has nothing to do with training wheels.
Re:Is Sudo Almost Useless? by kempbellt on Tuesday June 09, 2020 @05:24PM (#23471076)
It is an analogy..

Rider: Lean to the side

Training wheels: Hey! Whoah there. If you do that you will fall.

Rider: I know, do it anyway! (sudo...)

Training wheels: Your choice, I can only prevent so much.

Rider falls over...

If a user has sudoer privileges, sudo serves as nothing more than training wheels.

User: apt install APP

System: Access denied. sudo privileges required

User: sudo apt install APP

Sytem: Okie doke

And the age old `sudo make me a sandwhich` joke continues...

Re:Is Sudo Almost Useless? by dependenttypes on Tuesday June 09, 2020 @09:26PM (#23472882)
Sudo is an actual security measure though. You can be allowed to run "sudo service" but not "sudo apt" for example. Far from being a training wheel.
Re:Is Sudo Almost Useless? by kempbellt on Tuesday June 09, 2020 @10:49PM (#23473397)
Except it is... It is implicit in the command being an acronym for "super user do".

`sudo X` => `super-user-do X` => `I really mean to do X`

For a user that has privileges to run a command, `sudo` is equivalent to Windows popping up the "Admin Privileges Required: OK? Yes. Done" prompt to run an app when you are already an admin.

If you are already an admin (or sudoer in the Unix world), why ask? Because the command you are running is potentially destructive and you want to double check? That's fine, but it is just like training wheels.

If a user is not a sudoer, the topic is entirely irrelevant, and if sudoers do not have permission to run certain commands that is a completely different question.

But to answer the original question, "Is Sudo Almost Useless?", the answer in most cases is yes.