[CentOS] Orwell's 1984 from Freedesktop,org?

On Fri, 2015-01-23 at 16:18 +1300, Rob Kampen wrote:
> On 01/23/2015 04:05 PM, Always Learning wrote:
> > On Thu, 2015-01-22 at 21:19 -0500, Bill Maltby (C4B) wrote:
> >
> >> I object to this sort of crap. Hidden, no reason for an *IX desktop to
> >> be forced to ignore or deal with this crap.
> >>
> >> Anybody else seeing it?
> >>
> >> In case attachments aren't allowed in the list, here's the Dropbox url
> >> for the image.
> >>
> >> https://www.dropbox.com/s/b2p2ki7t2rwi5ot/FreeDeskTop_Org_Orwell_1984.png?dl=0
> >>
> >> I believe this relates to an earlier thread in which someone questioned
> >> what that Freedesktop.org stuff was doing (as did I).
> >>
> >> Any help appreciated.
> > What is going-on ?  It really looks Windozed !  Looking at it makes me
> > feel ill.
> >
> >
> Seriously??
> If, as most linux folk do, you run your desktop as a normal user (i.e. 
> NOT root) and then you try to do some system type changing, then there 
> are two options -
> 1. tell the user to go away
> 2. ask for suitable credentials
> The authenticate dialog box is offering to complete the task as long the 
> password for root is supplied - what on earth is wrong with that?
> On the command line you just get a cryptic not allowed, insufficient 
> rights etc. type message, with GUI the developer is interpreting this 
> and offering to escalate privileges if you can prove you are allowed.
> 
> Most of the applications under the system/administration tab of the 
> gnome desktop offer this kind of dialog.
> Sorry I don't see the reason for the paranoia.

Everyone's entitled to his own opinion, so I respect your right to that
view.

First, as to paranoia, how much $ is spent because of justified paranoia
in this world? ISTM that paranoia is justified by that alone. Second, I
spent too many years working with "those who know best" developing
software and systems when there was rigorous methodology to have any
unjustified faith in those who now work in a "throw it against the user
wall and see what sticks or gets reported as buggy" methodology.

I don't want this stupid thing popping up every time I switch from my
normal active user logons to my "dead" one (used to get around the
unaddressed bug I filed over a month ago about switching run levels
causing crashes and running multiple users as I'd been doing for ...
over a decade(?) on CentOS).

Even windows doesn't make me repeatedly click cancel if I'm not ready to
update (I have one Windows box for one application I do and my wife has
a couple) - it raise a little ... "flag" saying updates are available (I
have "check with me" set rather than allowing auto updates).

Yesterday on this 6.6 box I had to click cancel many times - most on one
switch of users as apparently they queue up.

AFAIK, tools are provided (sudo, "su -", ...) for non-root users to
invoke and accomplish these functions on *their* schedule, rather than
that set by some anonymous "one who knows better".

MHO,
Bill