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Windows is arguably more secure because it has the secure desktop that isn’t controlled by user applications. Unfortunately it doesn’t help with all kinds of pa

Windows is arguably more secure because it has the secure desktop that isn’t controlled by user applications. Unfortunately it doesn’t help with all kinds of password entry.

Blikkentrekker 6y ago
So does Android, but the same security is what creates a “walled garden”. To limit what malicious software that runs as one's user can do, one must limit what the user can do, and that's exactly what they attempt to do. I personally præfer that the user be trusted to be wise enough to run software that he does not trust in a contained environment, and he be given the freedom to control his own environment as he pleases.
- canofbars 6y ago
  >To limit what malicious software that runs as one's user can do, one must limit what the user can do This is completely untrue. You can gain root access on Android and have full access to do anything while still keeping applications sandboxed. Limiting user freedoms is simply an extra thing that came with new mobile OSs.
  - Blikkentrekker 6y ago
    With “the user” I mean “user” in the operating system sense, not the human being. Many “users” on Unix do not correspond to any particular physical human being.
- tinus_hn 6y ago
  That’s not what the secure desktop is. Windows has the normal desktop that shows your programs and separate desktops for special purposes. There is a desktop where your screensaver runs. So if your screensaver crashes it is not possible for your screen to show up. Another desktop is where the login screen is on. Normal programs can’t connect to that desktop so they can’t capture your keystrokes as you type your password. This isn’t about ‘walled gardens’.
greggyb 6y ago
Keepass can take advantage of the secure desktop to unlock the password database, and has multiple methods for entering passwords, including a method that mixes clipboard actions and auto-typing. It's not perfect, and anything that can log keys and monitor the clipboard would be able to sniff passwords. That said, it's a pretty good set of mitigations.

Windows is arguably more secure because it has the secure desktop that isn’t controlled by user applications. Unfortunately it doesn’t help with all kinds of password entry.

Blikkentrekker 6y ago

So does Android, but the same security is what creates a “walled garden”. To limit what malicious software that runs as one's user can do, one must limit what the user can do, and that's exactly what they attempt to do. I personally præfer that the user be trusted to be wise enough to run software that he does not trust in a contained environment, and he be given the freedom to control his own environment as he pleases.

canofbars 6y ago
>To limit what malicious software that runs as one's user can do, one must limit what the user can do This is completely untrue. You can gain root access on Android and have full access to do anything while still keeping applications sandboxed. Limiting user freedoms is simply an extra thing that came with new mobile OSs.
- Blikkentrekker 6y ago
  With “the user” I mean “user” in the operating system sense, not the human being. Many “users” on Unix do not correspond to any particular physical human being.
tinus_hn 6y ago
That’s not what the secure desktop is. Windows has the normal desktop that shows your programs and separate desktops for special purposes. There is a desktop where your screensaver runs. So if your screensaver crashes it is not possible for your screen to show up. Another desktop is where the login screen is on. Normal programs can’t connect to that desktop so they can’t capture your keystrokes as you type your password. This isn’t about ‘walled gardens’.

greggyb 6y ago

Keepass can take advantage of the secure desktop to unlock the password database, and has multiple methods for entering passwords, including a method that mixes clipboard actions and auto-typing. It's not perfect, and anything that can log keys and monitor the clipboard would be able to sniff passwords. That said, it's a pretty good set of mitigations.