Boruch Baum <boruch_baum@???> writes:

[...]

> I stand by my original proposal to change the /etc/profile to either
> 027 or 077, for the benefit of user accounts.

[...]

> On multi-user system like in real life your 'stuff' should be private
> until you decide to make it public.

That's you opinion on this topic but the underlying situation, namely,
different people who mutually distrust each other keeping largely
private stuff on a shared computer, is not universal. The
overwhelming majority of present-day 'personal computers' aren't really
being used for multi-user timesharing and many of those which
are are used by collaborating teams of people. It's also not uncommon to
have more than one user account on a machine used by a single person and
in this case, such barriers would just be getting in the way. Lastly,
all of UNIX(*) has historically been designed around collaboration and
not confrontation, mostly evident in the absence of mandatory or even
implied file locking.

It's debatable whether or not a computer system shared by different
people can be considered an inherently private instead of an inherently
public space at all. IMHO, it's more like a warehouse where many
different people shop for different things at any time or a public place
in a park: If you object to being seen, don't go there.