System Groups from Users and Groups

[measekite]

I am not sure where this thread goes so I put it here.

I have done a lot of research and keep coming up empty and this includes browsing books at B&N.

In both Ubuntu and Fedora there are many System Groups. I am looking for information to get a deep understanding of what happens when I create a user and add them to various specific groups.

In Windows this can get quite complicated but there is much documentation on the subject.

I cannot seem to find out what rights go along with each group.

Also I would like to know how I can exploit groups so they are valuable. Other than adding a user to a group and giving that group read, write, execute permissions that filter down to group members I cannot see what else they are for.

In Windows you can have groups within groups and they can be public or private. Not the case in Linux. In Windows you can also assign priveliges to entire groups like the ability to backup the computer or assign and manage printers. etc

For example if there is a group called backup operators then its members can backup files to devices.

[Hal343]

It works differently in linux. You set permissions on the files (some are root only) and then give different groups different permissions such as read only, read & execute only, or read write & execute. Think of it as denying certain file uses rather than allowing them.
You can name the group according to function if you want to. All groups are basically private in that the root user can control who is in which group. If you want to set up a public group that anyone can log into, don't allow write privileges to that group.