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I'm pretty much brand spanking new to Linux. I have a bit of experience on Digital Ocean but now I'm trying to go deep. I've just configured my local machine with Ubuntu 16.04 (desktop, not server) and now I'm ready to install a LAMP stack.

On DigitalOcean they advise that I

  • create a new user with sudo privileges (which i did) and
  • to disable the root account (also did)

but do I NEED to do this on my local system?

I don't have a clue (yet) about "best practices" (esp. for local box), so I thought I'd ask.

Zanna
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sleeper
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    Ubuntu is from start setup the way that root has no possibilities to log in at all, creating a second user for the lamp stack might in some cases be a good idea but not mandatory needed. It depends on what you want to use this system for. – Videonauth Nov 24 '17 at 01:51
  • It's primarily to learn linux. but I also plan to use it a local web development box. – sleeper Nov 24 '17 at 01:55
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    Then you should be fine with your initial user account you created at OS installation. you might even want to set up a server install in a VM like KVM/qemu or Virtualbox and limit them so only you can access them. Or look into other container formats for this. – Videonauth Nov 24 '17 at 01:57
  • cool thanks! although the way you answered does not give me the ability to mark your answer as the correct one. Update it and i'll give you the credit. – sleeper Nov 24 '17 at 02:00

1 Answers1

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Ubuntu is set up from the start to have root disabled with no possibilities for root to log in. The only way to become root is by using sudo or polkit.

It might be a clever idea in some cases to create a secondary user for the LAMP stack but its not mandatory needed if you only plan to use it as development platform which you mostly will only access locally.

You might want to look into usage via VM (KVM/qemu, Virtualbox, VMWare) or other container formats like docker and co.

This would give you the ability to have a real server environment running and more fine grained access controls, as well the option to shut the server down in the times you not need it.

Videonauth
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