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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Adding a user? (reddthat.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

8 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Easy one I hope. LMDE5, trying to add a user. According to various sites I checked, it's easy enough, go to control panel, users and groups, click on add, and fill in the details, and bob's your uncle... Except that it didn't work, still just the one user on the log in screen. Tried giving the new user the same permissions as the current one, no dice, have also rebooted, and nothing. So, either I missed something, or the system isn't behaving, but either way, I could use a hand with this, thanks.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

The passwd file gets it's name from the historical password file when there were in fact encrypted passwords in the file. Back then CPUs were generally less than 100Mhz so brute force password cracking was at best a very leisurely hobby. After it became more of a thing people got the idea that maybe it made sense to put it in a seperate file without public read access. Still, you CAN put encrypted passwords in the password file if you really want to, else the :x: just says go look in the shadow file.

[–] CameronDev 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I think that was meant to be a reply to me, so I'll respond.

Technically, /etc/passwd can have encrypted passwords in it, but as far as I'm aware, no distro has done that in decades, so realistically its not that risky. It does expose the user names though.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

@CameronDev No, but there was a time that was the norm. There also was a time that triple-DES was the encryption standard. But again those times a 100Mhz single core CPU was a high end CPU.