It's still our decision to install as we do. So it's not an issue, 
it's a feature. Maybe you think this feature is not optimal, in this
case you should write an issue, but the issue type is not "defect",
it's an "enhancement" or "feature".
Falko, it's your turn.

Thanks for your prompt reply, and your work on OpenOffice in general.

Installing a end user application into roots home directory encourages
a practice that everyone (AFAIK) in the Unix community specifically
avoids for the reason that it encourages insecure use of the system.

I believe this is a bug, and that more than 99% of OpenOffice users,
Unix users, and Unix programmers (including the OpenOffice team) would
agree.

While I appreciate that it is indeed up to Openoffice.org to choose
how it installs,  (although this seems to have been a decision of
StarDivision) I don't see how that automatically makes those decisions
correct. It is almost universally accepted that installing end user
applications into roots home directory and thus encouraging their use
by this user is a poor and incorrect decision, and I would be very
surprised 
if anyone could successfully change this opinion.

I have remarked this issue as a defect.

Mike

Wisdom: Any automatism will cause trouble. Since 'root' should be a)
an admin who knows what he/she is doing or b) a newbie who will always
use the system as root, who will always want to have a single user
installation

*** Issue 1795 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***

> Since 'root' should be 
Thanks for your reply.

> a) an admin who knows what he/she is doing or 
> b) a newbie who will always use the system as root, who will always
want to
> have a single user installation

b) is *highly* debatable. 

Its fairly widely known that newbies should *not* always run the
system as root, and that applications shouldn't promote this.

newbis should run, like any other user, as ordinary user accounts. Any
administrative tool should be run via su, or, as is becoming much more
common these days, tools which can be run as a regular user and prompt
for the appropriate password.

This same logic had already been implemented in:

* All GNOME admin tools
* All KDE admin tools
* All Mandrake admin tools
* All Red Hat admin tools
others I haven't listed here.

And OpenOffice should do the same. I still believe this is a defect,
think that others would agree, and that, eventually, you will too :-).

Mike

Again: Changing our default to /net within Unix environments once it
is run by root might make sense for quite some people.
But still: any automatism will lead to problems.

Therefore
1. Changed to enhancement and
2. put to prio 5 and
3. status "later"

I agree, root install of a single user app is very poor and it is VERY
poor of OO to allow/encourage it.

I have been in linux/unix for 15 years, installed from root to
hopefully get a maulti-user instal, and now cannot run it from my
normal user account. NOW I know (maybe) what the /net option is for
:-). I better look it up. The install should have at LEAST warned me.

No linux/unix office app should ever let end-users install to run from
root. Its a fundamental no-no in unix, as stated by others. If some
newbies attempt it or wnat to do it, they should be told 'Welcome to
unix/linux - you NEVER DO THAT - its a fundamental no-no. Learn the
very bare basics or stay with DOS/Windoze.'

I also think that the install/doco should make the usage of /net more
apparent, eg that "the typical installation in the Linux/unix world
would be to do a /net install as root, then run the application,
perhaps from the same machine, as a normal user." etc etc

Hi,    
    
Have any of you read the new install docs lately or looked at the    
"install" script that comes with OOo 1.0?    
    
Many of us agree with you and so have created a simple "setup"    
wrapper script (a temporary solution until the enhancement comes    
along) called "install".    
    
So instead of root typing "setup -net" or "setup" if you try:    
    
./install -h  (or --help or -help or ...)    
    
You can then easily just do the following as root:    
    
./install    
    
or    
    
./install --prefix=/opt    
    
And the script will default to a net install under Linux/Unix (and    
defaults to /usr/local/ unless the --prefix is set.    
    
There is also a -single switch that will default to whatever home    
directory is for the user who invokes it.    
    
Also if you look in the very latest installer guide it explicity    
recommends against doing a single user install on a Unix system    
(there is really no need since you can always do a -net install into    
your own home directory if you really want to but ...).    
    
I have included a README about this and have made the installer docs    
available for the PPC Linux port of OOo I support.    
    
Please check them out:    
   ftp://penguinppc.org/projects/openoffice/OOo_1.0.0_README 
   ftp://penguinppc.org/projects/openoffice/OOo_install_guide.pdf 
 
You will find the OOo_install_guide.pdf most interesting as it 
explicitly warns against making a singlue user install under 
Linux/Unix. 
 
This document was supposed to be shipped as part of OOo 1.0 but 
never made it (it did into the PPC Linux version but...) due to some 
mixup (probably becuase it uses StarOffce 6.0 screenshots instead of 
OOo 1.0 screenshots. 
 
The "install" script did make it as part of official OOo build but 
has a small bug in it for creating symlinks at the end (which does 
not impact anything at all...luckily).  Hopefully both a fixed 
"install" script and an updated Install Guide will become part of 
the OOo 1.0.1 followup release when that is ready. 
 
Hope this helps, 
 
Kevin 
 
     
    

I think this issue is obsolet with OOo 2.x

Correct state.

Fixed.

Closed.