By default that would be insane, but if you install and run a program under your credentials to let it do that, that's not GNOME's fault. Also, Windows does let

By default that would be insane, but if you install and run a program under your credentials to let it do that, that's not GNOME's fault. Also, Windows does let programs do that, via custom credential providers. See, e.g., https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/msdn-magazine/2007/january/custom-login-experiences-credential-providers-in-windows-vista https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/msdn-magazine/2007... and https://stackoverflow.com/a/35173886/7509065 https://stackoverflow.com/a/35173886/7509065