[selowitch]

How come even though I have Admin status, I can't have unfettered access to every folder in every user directory?

[Chuckit]

Because it's called "admin," not "let's throw out the security model altogether."

[RevEvs]

If you want acess to everything... you need to be root. And I mean everythign BTW - as in you can delete the operating system or vital parts of it if you mess up

[selowitch]

Originally posted by RevEvs:
If you want acess to everything... you need to be root. And I mean everythign BTW - as in you can delete the operating system or vital parts of it if you mess up

That's just it. I'd rather not sign in as root for that reason, but I'd like to be able to drop documents into my wife or son's User --> Documents directory at will. Pretty basic benign stuff. Couldn't there be a compromise between Admin and root user?

To put it another way, what exactly does admin status entitle me to that ordinary user status does not?

[CatOne]

Originally posted by selowitch:
That's just it. I'd rather not sign in as root for that reason, but I'd like to be able to drop documents into my wife or son's User --> Documents directory at will. Pretty basic benign stuff. Couldn't there be a compromise between Admin and root user?

To put it another way, what exactly does admin status entitle me to that ordinary user status does not?

You can install/remove software. You can change system settings.

You can also sudo. A non-admin user cannot sudo; they must first su to an admin user, and then they can sudo.

Admin users are members of group 20 (admins). Root is a member of 'wheel' (group 0). The default model is a very, very good one. You may want to learn about it ;-)

[selowitch]

Originally posted by CatOne:
You can install/remove software. You can change system settings.

You can also sudo. A non-admin user cannot sudo; they must first su to an admin user, and then they can sudo.

Admin users are members of group 20 (admins). Root is a member of 'wheel' (group 0). The default model is a very, very good one. You may want to learn about it ;-)

Can you recommend a good book on the subject?

[gorickey]

Originally posted by selowitch:
How come even though I have Admin status, I can't have unfettered access to every folder in every user directory?

You can find that "feature" in Windows '95/'98...

If you want to "Share" documents for others users to have access to them, why not place them in the "Shared" Users directory?

[selowitch]

Originally posted by gorickey:
If you want to "Share" documents for others users to have access to them, why not place them in the "Shared" Users directory?

Because I had a hard enough time getting them to go to Users --> <username> --> Documents to get their stuff. Re-educating them is a pain. Besides, I don't want to "share" documents, but rather give them permanently to someone in particular and not to others.

[gorickey]

Originally posted by selowitch:
Because I had a hard enough time getting them to go to Users --> <username> --> Documents to get their stuff. Re-educating them is a pain. Besides, I don't want to "share" documents, but rather give them permanently to someone in particular and not to others.

They need the education it sounds like.

Can they use the Internet? E-mail?

[selowitch]

Originally posted by gorickey:
They need the education it sounds like.

Can they use the Internet? E-mail?

Well, my six-year-old so can surf the web surprisingly well. No e-mail yet because he can't really read.

My wife is something of a technophobe. Familiarizing her with Mac OS X's Unix conventions was really a chore (she's one of those folks who uses Windows but doesn't appreciate the depth of her misery).

[timothyh]

Originally posted by selowitch:
Well, my six-year-old so can surf the web surprisingly well. No e-mail yet because he can't really read.

My wife is something of a technophobe. Familiarizing her with Mac OS X's Unix conventions was really a chore (she's one of those folks who uses Windows but doesn't appreciate the depth of her misery).

Hi Selowitch.
I know very much where you're coming from. I've recently been looking for ways to share music and photos between 6 users with myself as only admin, so that all who want to can burn CD's, edit/add photos etc. Which you cannot do with the "Share Music/Photos" option. As far as I can tell.
One interesting solution may be here . There may be a simple way to adapt this fix to work for a file of your choice. You'll need to open up a Terminal window and do some stuff, I gather...which is why I'm hesitating on my account. I should explore the powers of Terminal eventually, I suppose - now might be the time. But if you're even slightly more tech savvy than me, it should be quite do-able.
Anyhow, hope this is of some help. And even if it isn't, it might afford some insight into the issues you're confronting in what you wish to accomplish.
Cheers.

[Angus_D]

Originally posted by selowitch:
Because I had a hard enough time getting them to go to Users --> <username> --> Documents to get their stuff. Re-educating them is a pain. Besides, I don't want to "share" documents, but rather give them permanently to someone in particular and not to others.

Put them in their drop box (in Public).

[MPMoriarty]

A better approach to allow for everyone on your computer to have access to files you want to share is to drop them in the "Shared" user account in the users directory. This account allows anyone to have access to the files contained in the directory.

Mike

[gorickey]

Originally posted by MPMoriarty:
A better approach to allow for everyone on your computer to have access to files you want to share is to drop them in the "Shared" user account in the users directory. This account allows anyone to have access to the files contained in the directory.

Mike

Read above.

[CubeWannaB]

Originally posted by gorickey:
Read above.

How about creating a folder with folder actions that copies stuff from their drop box to their documents directory? Or an applescript that runs when they log in and does something similar?

Also, you probably shouldn't be teaching them to go to Users-><name>->Documents, but to click the documents button on the left side - you are using Panther, right?

[Anubis IV]

Couldn't he just change permissions on their user folders so that he can have access? Seems like the easiest solution to me...I mean, he IS an admin after all.