Linus Torvalds was not a happy man. He’s been using openSUSE Linux as his desktop Linux, he explained in a Google+ posting, “because it worked so well at install-time on the MacBook Air, but I have to say, I’ve had enough. There is no way in hell I can honestly suggest that to anybody else any more.” What enraged Mr. Linux? OpenSUSE’s demand that you use the root password to make what Torvalds thinks are trivial desktop setting changes.

Torvalds started by saying that “I don’t think I can talk about “security” people without cursing, so you might want to avert your eyes now.” A long time Fedora user, Torvalds recently switched to openSUSE [German link], because of his intense dislike for Fedora’s GNOME 3.x desktop.

Sharing, as I do, his feelings about GNOME 3.x, I’m sure he still doesn’t want to go back to Fedora with GNOME. But, he’s sure not happy with openSUSE, which uses the KDE desktop by default, either.

Torvalds was enraged that it took weeks of “arguing on a Bugzilla that the security policy of requiring the root password for changing the time zone and adding a new wireless network was moronic and wrong. I think the wireless network thing finally did get fixed, but the time zone never did – it still asks for the admin password.”

Linus Torvalds snarls at openSUSE desktop Linux’s security. More >