USER STEREOTYPES
As is the case in many other professions, exaggerated stereotypes have
emerged for users and system administrators. Many stereotypes contain
elements of truth mixed with generous amounts of hyperbole and humor
and serve to assist us in understanding the characteristics of and differences
in the stereotyped subjects. The stereotypes of the luser and the BOFH
(not-so-nice terms for users and administrators, respectively) serve as
cautionary tales describing what behavior is acceptable and unacceptable in
the computing community.
Understanding these stereotypes enables you to better define the
appropriate and inappropriate roles of system administrators, users, and
others. You can find descriptions of these terms by searching online.Managing Groups
Groups can make managing users a lot easier. Instead of having to assign
individual permissions to every user, you can use groups to grant or revoke
permissions to a large number of users quickly and easily. Setting group
permissions enables you to set up workspaces for collaborative working and
to control what devices can be used, such as external drives or DVD writers.
This approach also represents a secure method of limiting access to system
resources to only those users who need them. As an example, the system
administrator could put the users matthew, ryan, sandra, holly,
debra, and mark in a new group named unleashed. Those users could
each create files intended for their group work and chgrp those files to
unleashed.
Now, everyone in the unleashed group—but no one else except root—can
work with those files. The system administrator would probably create a
directory owned by that group so that its members could have an easily
accessible place to store those files. The system administrator could also add
other users such as chris and shannon to the group and remove existing
users when their part of the work is done. The system administrator could
make the user matthew the group administrator so that matthew could
decide how group membership should be changed. You could also put
restrictions on the DVD writer so that only matthew could burn DVDs, thus
protecting sensitive material from falling into the wrong hands.