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>I mean, my computers are mine, an no-one else uses them. That's only half of what a multi-user system does though. The other half is about fine-grained privil

>I mean, my computers are mine, an no-one else uses them. That's only half of what a multi-user system does though. The other half is about fine-grained privilege management. One of the reasons (not the only reason by any stretch but a contributing factor certainly) why Windows has so many more problems with viruses than other OS's is that under windows you're basically either a user or an admin, there's no in between. Crucially, there's also nothing lower. Under linux[1] systems, it's totally possible to define a user that can read and write from one specific folder in the file system tree but not it's ancestor nodes, read from the keyboard but not the mouse and absolutely nothing else. All of those problems that windows has with random programs being keyloggers are eminently solvable on linux because you can make a custom user that cannot use networking or listen to the keyboard as appropriate, and then launch the process using that user. Anyway, how well used all these capabilities are depends a lot on the person administering the linux system, but windows is extremely reactive in this fashion. Desktop linux users tend not to run outgoing firewalls, for example, they just don't allow software that they don't trust to access the network. [1] anyone know how to write star-nix on hacker news without it making everything italics?

badsectoracula 8y ago
You can do that stuff on Windows too, it is just that nobody bothers to. Although stuff like disallowing users to use the network seem to only be available in Windows Pro, for some reason (although it might just be that only the GUI is lacking from the Home edition and you need to use the console or some 3rd party program, but i'm not sure). But i disagree with the part about how Linux users behave: from my experience Linux users, at least home/desktop Linux users, behave pretty much the same way as Windows users.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
> That's only half of what a multi-user system does though. The other half is about fine-grained privilege management. Useful in a networked corporate environment, a lot less so on a personal computer. > All of those problems that windows has with random programs being keyloggers are eminently solvable on linux because you can make a custom user that cannot use networking or listen to the keyboard as appropriate, and then launch the process using that user. You can do that on Windows and have been able to since at least Vista. the only reason I disqualify XP is that I wrote a keylogger for it so I know for a fact that you can grab raw keyboard input from any user session. Even before that though NTFS offered a fine grained access control mechanism for files and folders. > Desktop linux users tend not to run outgoing firewalls, for example, they just don't allow software that they don't trust to access the network. My experience is that they just don't run software that wasn't sourced from their distribution's package repositories. That is certainly an advantage of the appstore model, but you have to admit it is significantly more limiting that being able to get the latest version of something by downloading it from the vendor's website.
- Sir_Substance 8y ago
  >My experience is that they just don't run software that wasn't sourced from their distribution's package repositories. That is certainly an advantage of the appstore model, but you have to admit it is significantly more limiting that being able to get the latest version of something by downloading it from the vendor's website. It would be very limiting if it were reality, yes. I frequently download packages that aren't part of the default distro repo though. There's lots of PPA's, and I also install a lot of software just by extracting it into a directory in my home folder and running it.
exikyut 8y ago
> [1] anyone know how to write star-nix on hacker news without it making everything italics? Only have one single * in the entire post. [X] Not sane [X] Already complained [X] Issue acknowledged [X] Complaint filed probably over a year ago at this point [X] Given up; incentivized to build alternative to HN (know what I want, but currently have no time unfortunately) EDIT: I added Unicode checkmarks to my post, and they got eaten. [X] Cherry+icing on cake - seriously, wow.
deleted 8y ago
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badsectoracula 8y ago

You can do that stuff on Windows too, it is just that nobody bothers to. Although stuff like disallowing users to use the network seem to only be available in Windows Pro, for some reason (although it might just be that only the GUI is lacking from the Home edition and you need to use the console or some 3rd party program, but i'm not sure). But i disagree with the part about how Linux users behave: from my experience Linux users, at least home/desktop Linux users, behave pretty much the same way as Windows users.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago

> That's only half of what a multi-user system does though. The other half is about fine-grained privilege management. Useful in a networked corporate environment, a lot less so on a personal computer. > All of those problems that windows has with random programs being keyloggers are eminently solvable on linux because you can make a custom user that cannot use networking or listen to the keyboard as appropriate, and then launch the process using that user. You can do that on Windows and have been able to since at least Vista. the only reason I disqualify XP is that I wrote a keylogger for it so I know for a fact that you can grab raw keyboard input from any user session. Even before that though NTFS offered a fine grained access control mechanism for files and folders. > Desktop linux users tend not to run outgoing firewalls, for example, they just don't allow software that they don't trust to access the network. My experience is that they just don't run software that wasn't sourced from their distribution's package repositories. That is certainly an advantage of the appstore model, but you have to admit it is significantly more limiting that being able to get the latest version of something by downloading it from the vendor's website.

Sir_Substance 8y ago
>My experience is that they just don't run software that wasn't sourced from their distribution's package repositories. That is certainly an advantage of the appstore model, but you have to admit it is significantly more limiting that being able to get the latest version of something by downloading it from the vendor's website. It would be very limiting if it were reality, yes. I frequently download packages that aren't part of the default distro repo though. There's lots of PPA's, and I also install a lot of software just by extracting it into a directory in my home folder and running it.

exikyut 8y ago

> [1] anyone know how to write star-nix on hacker news without it making everything italics? Only have one single * in the entire post. [X] Not sane [X] Already complained [X] Issue acknowledged [X] Complaint filed probably over a year ago at this point [X] Given up; incentivized to build alternative to HN (know what I want, but currently have no time unfortunately) EDIT: I added Unicode checkmarks to my post, and they got eaten. [X] Cherry+icing on cake - seriously, wow.

deleted 8y ago

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