RFC: root/non-root bash prompts different colours?

[Stuart Children]

Rahul Sundaram wrote:
>>I'd say no regardless. It's too dificult to choose
>>appropriate colours. 
> 
> I dont think so. with some amount of careful thought
> it should be possible

There have been several good reasons given already why colours in 
particular are bad. I'll give one more: are you sure that a given colour 
implies what you think it does in different cultures?

> If fedora was catering just to old time unix users who
> are used to working with Linux on the server, then
> this definitely is not needed but since its trying to
> be appealing to everyone including newbies, it is
> important that we do something like this.

If you really want to make the "danger" of a root shell more obvious to 
newbies, then how about: Create a new application launcher "root 
terminal" which prompts for the root password, gives you a nice stern 
warning dialogue, and could have different window decoration to a 
regular terminal. This way root's shell is left alone for people who 
know how to get there other ways, and all the "warnings" are easily 
localisable and themable - as well as contained within the one launcher 
that the rest of us don't have to use.

I'm all for getting as many people as possible to use Fedora. However, 
that does not mean we should be pandering to newbies; or doing things 
that will inconvenience the more experienced users. The command line is 
supposed to be powerful - but with great power comes great 
responsibility (apologies, couldn't resist). Until newbies gain enough 
experience for that, they should be given more friendly and safer 
methods to configure their system. So if you feel the 
"newbie-friendlyness" of Fedora needs work then I'd suggest time and 
effort would best be spent helping create/improve the GUI admin tools. 
Those are also beneficial to advanced users.

Cheers

-- 
Stuart