Well, not quite, but it’s getting there. Benny has updated his blog.
With part one of a two-part article on Windows user account types, no less. Anyone who’s ever tried to do the right thing and run Windows as a mere mortal user knows that the experience is painful in the extreme, owing to the blanket assumption by third-party developers that everyone runs as the all-powerful Administrator.
It says something that even Microsoft’s own employees run their workstations as administrators. There is talk of a change in policy when Vista surfaces, a move that’s likely to upset some within The Beast, but should give the rest of us a workable system. In theory, at least.
User privileges is something that Linux has got right all along. Access to files and other resources is fine-grained, with users able to restrict the ability to read, write, or execute their files (or folder, where ‘executing’ becomes ‘traversing’) based on user ID, group membership, or lack thereof. Thus you can allow everyone to reach your public_html folder without letting them see the contents of your home directory beneath it; or you can make things read-only; or you can let your fellow users execute one of your programs without being able to read the executable itself, if you feel like it.
To most newcomers to Linux, this sort of control - and the need to be logged in as the root (admin) user to perform most system maintenance tasks - is a completely alien concept, because they’re used to being the Administrator on their Windows system and able to do whatever they like. File permissions have existed in Windows since Windows NT, but for the average home user - even the average home user with Windows XP Professional - this feature is deactivated by default and confusing if you turn it on.
In theory, better ‘limited user’ accounts in Vista should encourage their uptake and make the Unix-style permissions and user paradigm familiar to more users. In practice? Everyone will still run as Administrator unless Microsoft stops them.
Still, get yourself over to Benny’s blog and read all about the pain of limited user accounts in Windows XP. And perhaps give it a go. It’ll make your online experience a little bit safer.
