Ubuntu

Can i delete the default users?

Asked by murphtb

hi,

i have just installed ubtunu (the new 1)
and i looked in my users and groups tab
and there are HEAPS of groups and users
can i delete them?

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Knut Karevoll (gnonthgol) said : 		#1

Yes, but for your own safty I am not going to tell you. The users with a UID under 1000 are system users. They are used by other programs for security. It is an extra security feature in Linux that restricts an exploit in any system programs that might otherwise have full system access. These users have no shell or password so they can not be used by others then the programs configured to use them. If you delete one of them bad things will happen and you might not be able to recover.
So DO NOT DELETE USERS YOU DID NOT CREATE.

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