From the course: Introduction to Linux

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User and system security

User and system security - Linux Tutorial

From the course: Introduction to Linux

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User and system security

- [Instructor] Multi-user operating systems are normal these days. Linux, Windows, and macOS are all multi-user, though it originally wasn't the case that computers could support more than one user. There used to be just the user, and they could do whatever they wanted on the system. While that's convenient, at least for that one user, it's not very efficient, and it's a security nightmare. So like other modern operating systems, Linux uses a multi-user model where each human using the system can have their own user account with separate files and settings. And the same is true for software and services. Some programs and services, especially things like a web server, a database server, and other software that isn't tied to a particular human user often run using their own user account. Usually, these accounts, human and computer, are standard accounts. That is, they can work with their own files, but they aren't allowed to make changes to the system or to files outside of their own…

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