RK075015_vicky's Journal: Is Ubuntu's security model stronger than Windows'?

Right now, as of Windows XP (changes in the upcoming Windows Vista release), Windows first user by default is being the computer administrator, so the user is able to accidentally modify system wide settings. Windows allows you to make it more secure by creating limited user accounts and using the Run As... option to run only particular tasks or programs as administrator (similar to the su feature in most Linux distributions). Run As... is crippled in its implementation, though. If you use Run As... to install Windows Updates, the updates do not install properly. Also, you have to find the particular launcher files (extension of *.cpl) for Control Panel applications in order to use the Run As... option on them. As far as I know, there is no way to run Explorer (the file browser) as administrator from within a limited user account. Unfortunately, in addition to Run As... being crippled, many third-party (not Microsoft) software companies design their applications to be run as administrator (since that is the Windows default, which is Microsoft's fault). Here is the Hall of Shame for programs that need to be run as administrator in Windows in order to function properly. Ubuntu's default user operates as a limited user most of the time but has the ability (since she belongs to the admin group) to temporarily assume administrator (also known as root) privileges for particular tasks, and this setup is not only the default setup, but it is also fully functional--not crippled in any way.