Yes. If you use something like BTRFS or ZFS, you can just restore what was lost from a previous snapshot. Hard to do that when you don't have anything on disk anymore. (of course you can then rely on some external backups, but it will take more work)
Software developers use package managers like npm (javascript) in order to easily retrive useful libraries for their app development.
Unfortunately, they often choose to install/run this software as root, which means it can do literally anything on their system.
If you don’t run it as root, you are immune to this developer’s shenanigans.
Yes. If you use something like BTRFS or ZFS, you can just restore what was lost from a previous snapshot. Hard to do that when you don't have anything on disk anymore. (of course you can then rely on some external backups, but it will take more work)
so it was a massive case of lasiness/pebcak with these ngo devs, in essense?
NGO, this is either a 'feelings' operation, or a grifter operation.
Very much so. Developers are very lazy these days.