[Techtalk] Sound card gone missing - OSS/ALSA woes

[Akkana Peck]

> TraceyC wrote:
> > As a sysadmin, I'd restrict
> > him to a wheel account without the ability to break things that
> > only root can break. A wheel account has the flexibility to add
> > more ability to change things as he learns while keeping him to the
> > agreement to not futz with things he shouldn't.

Little Girl writes:
> A wheel account sounds good, and then letting him out of it from time
> to time with the full awareness that he might end the world would be
> good, too.

What do you two mean by "wheel account"? I've seen "wheel" used for
a group that has sysadmin/sudo privileges -- and I just googled it
and Wikipedia seems to use it that way too. But you seem to mean an
account that *doesn't* have sudo privileges.  I'm curious what sort
of account would let him learn how to manage a system without
letting him break anything.

> When I got my first computer a relative of mine said that I shouldn't
> be fearful of it, but just go ahead and mess around with it. He told
> me that everybody messes up their computers eventually, that he fully

Definitely. On the other hand, that works a lot better on a computer
owned by just one person than on a shared computer. It's a bummer when
I mess my machine up because I did something dumb, but it would be a
much bigger bummer if I messed up a shared machine just before my
husband needed to use it for something, or vice versa.

If at all possible, in this age of cheap computers I'd say get the
Linux learner a cheap machine of his own to play with -- even if
it's a cheap used laptop from ebay. Or if you really have to share
a machine, make another root partition, or use virtualization, and
install a separate Linux there for playing around without risking
the working system.

	...Akkana