Warning Themes – Interesting Concept to Make “Being Root Scary” for Newbie Lin

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
Oct 6, 2010

[ Thanks to kiterunner for this link.
]

“We have seen such interesting desktop modification
concepts like right click menu alternative mockup, creative button
concepts by IZO design etc. Warning themes concept is another
interesting idea worth a look. The rationale behind the concept to
make it clear to the user that, opening something like a
filebrowser as root is not the ‘normal’ way to do things and such
actions could damage their system.

“Themes to Make Being Root Scary

“The original idea can be found at Ubuntu Artwork Concepts page.
And its like an year old, the last edit to this wiki page was done
in early 2009. But I think, it’s still an interesting idea
especially if you haven’t heard about it before.

“The Concept

“Opening applications with sudo is becoming more common and many
quite inexperienced users are finding instructions to do so on
forums, blogs etc. It should be clear to a user when opening
something like a filebrowser as root that they are able to do
damage to their system and that it is not the ‘normal’ way to do
things.”


Complete Story

Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

Linux Today Logo

LinuxToday is a trusted, contributor-driven news resource supporting all types of Linux users. Our thriving international community engages with us through social media and frequent content contributions aimed at solving problems ranging from personal computing to enterprise-level IT operations. LinuxToday serves as a home for a community that struggles to find comparable information elsewhere on the web.

Property of TechnologyAdvice. © 2026 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.