Someone once told me that 'wheel' was a group name adopted by a bunch of users who were granted root-like powers. The story went that as unix systems grew it became difficult to get the root user's attention to fix smaller problems, so the sysadmin delegated some root-like powers to experienced and trusted normal users identified by being members of the 'wheel' group.
That said, the explanation doesn't explain why 'wheel' was actually chosen as the group name.
Wheel/staff is a group
Wheel/staff is a group that's allowed to use su, though many distros allow anybody to use it(to be honest, I never understood the point).
Someone once told me that
Someone once told me that 'wheel' was a group name adopted by a bunch of users who were granted root-like powers. The story went that as unix systems grew it became difficult to get the root user's attention to fix smaller problems, so the sysadmin delegated some root-like powers to experienced and trusted normal users identified by being members of the 'wheel' group.
That said, the explanation doesn't explain why 'wheel' was actually chosen as the group name.
I've never really heard a
I've never really heard a straight answer about this. Sorry I'm not of more help!