[Terr_]

Training people (esp. what passes for non-techies on Linux) to regularly copy-paste into the terminal is massively riskier than "click this URL". Just for starters, consider how easily you can make a web-page where you highlight X to copy it, but instead Y is delivered to your clipboard. Then on execute it could even redraw the terminal to pretend you pasted X all along.

Also, there's a convention or social-contract that everyone who downloads 2.10 ought to get precisely the same thing. This provides a foundation for other facets of security, like "it must have an expected hash" or "it must validate as signed by this public key". Also investigative actions like discovering when something suspicious got added, or detecting that the installer is trying to access the internet when it really shouldn't be.

[loa_in_]

Agreed, don't train fellow human beings (users) to follow, educate them.

"Make things as simple as possible, but no simpler." - commonly known quote.

We're making things so simple, the users don't get to have a proper chance at learning what's happening. Training people away from giving programs access, makes it opaque and dangerous. Unfortunately at the same time for non technology inclined users even Windows approach of file->Properties->Security visual UI proves challenging.

[mh-]

> Then on execute it could even redraw the terminal to pretend you pasted X all along.

Diabolical idea. Anyone know if there's been anything in the wild that did this?