Make Passwords Visible And Automate Authorisation Process

[greenism]

Given how many times users have to enter a password when using Linux Mint it is almost inevitable that there will be typos. It should be possible to make passwords visible before pressing enter. Ideally, it should be possible to set this as a system-wide option so that passwords are always visible if users want this. Maybe this option already exists but I have not found it. So, maybe we just need better user guides?

I use Linux Mint at home (I work from home). I have no fear of being overlooked when entering a password. In fact I have no fear of my laptop being hacked by anyone. The worst that might happen is someone breaking in and stealing my stuff and then trying to decrypt the hard drive to access data. Good luck with that. Passwords? They are as dated as those annoying captcha 'security' devices which serve no useful purpose.

I suspect most people do not require military grade security on their laptops. I think entering a password when the laptop starts up, and having it remembered, and automatically re-entered by pressing return when prompted to enter passwords should be enough. Linux Mint has to automate these 'housekeeping' tasks to make it more 'user-friendly'.

The obsession with entering passwords on a desktop device is just bizarre in the current period when most data theft is occuring online - stolen in broad daylight by spyware integrated into resources like browsers and search engines. Linux Mint fusses around over passwords and ships with Firefox/Google as the browser option. That's like putting a padlock on the rubbish bin while leaving your wallet unattended on a park bench.

I think Linux Mint needs to rethink password policy because current practice is dated and so unnecessary it now looks like someone has turned password use into some kind of fetish or ritualised behaviour which exists just for its own sake like a pom-pom on a hat. Sure, we once needed pom-poms to stop knitted hats falling apart but we no longer need them. Now pom-poms are made separately and sewn on as a decoration. I thinlk the password rituals in Linux Mint are like that. I think this has to change. Its not the 1990s any more, Granny.

[karlchen]

I am really pleased at least once per week, because a new self-appointed security expert joins our forums and enlightens us about how ridiculous and futile it is trying to protect our data and our privacy with the help of something as obsolete as passwords.

When computers entered our lives and took over managing all our data, I stopped locking the front and the back door of our house. Doing so was no longer necessary, because thieves did not have to come to our house, break open the locked front or back door and steal our money, our TV device or the stereo equipment.

Instead they only had to try and hack my computer in order to learn the login credentials of my banking account. In case they had succeeded they would have had full access to all my financial resources.
This is why I assigned a strong password to my computer and to my online banking account at that time.

When I had to learn that the IT departments of some banks were simply not capable of preventing hackers from stealing their customers' data nonetheless, of course, I stopped using strong passwords for my online banking account and used something which I could remember more easily like the name of my cat.

The same applies to all my online shop accounts. Why should I bother to use strong passwords and even a separate strong password for each online shop account, although the ignorant system admins of the same online shops never manage to prevent hackers from intruding their systems and from stealing the unencrypted customers' data every once in a while?

As there is no way of making sure that those external service providers, with whom I share all my private data so freely, keep these data private and protect them from being stolen, why then should I bother to protect my private data from being stolen from my local computer?

So I reconfigured all my Linux Mint systems not to require any passwords in order to log in any users. Executing commands with root permissions can of course be done without having to authenticate as well. Why should I have to authenticate on my own systems? They are mine and I know what I am doing, unlike all those talent-free wannabe losers, who pretend to be professional system administrators working for global online service providers and who nonetheless never really manage to protect their customers' data from being stolen by hackers.

I must say that life has become very convenient once you have got rid of
+ all the keys, which you had to carry around all the time, in order to unlock all the locked doors
+ all the passwords, which you had to memorize or carry around on some handwritten notepad

There is just a minor downside which I have to put up since my life is a life without keys and passwords:

• roughly every second week I have to buy a new TV set, because it has been removed from our house
• I have to go by bus or by foot, because the (unlocked) car has disappeared a long time ago
• my credit card gets rejected regularly because someone has spent my money before I did
• most of my online shop accounts have been cancelled, because too many invoices are still open unpaid, though I had not ordered anything myself for quite a while
• 7 days a week I have to re-install Linux Mint from scratch because some unauthorized external visitor had screwed up my system

But once you have got used to these minor inconveniences, a life without keys and passwords is really extremely convenient and full of surprises.

--
Beware:
The post which you have just read might be mildly ironic.

[tinca]

karlchen,

bloody funny, well done

Best regards Keith

[Pjotr]

n00bs with an attitude.... <sigh>

Against stupidity the Gods themselves fight in vain, so this mere mortal isn't going to attempt that.

By the way: what is your address, karlchen? I need a new TV set.