User Private Groups
I have never been particularly happy with the way users and groups are normally used in Linux. They work well enough for people who know what they are doing, but the fact of the matter is, most people don’t know what they are doing. So, the default should be for the “right” thing to happen by default – that is, the thing the user most likely wants to happen, or to say it differently, the thing that will produce the result the user most likely wants, regardless of how exactly it does that. If that makes sense.
Anyway, a while ago, I came across this suggestion of an alternate standard to set up the security system in Linux. Its called “User Private Groups,” and it struck a chord with me. So yesterday, I changed the directories in which users put their files (/home and /sf2 in my case) over the the UPG system. We’ll see how it goes.