Whoa! Microsoft should create something to make people jump through hoops to get Admin privileges? Great idea! Maybe they could call it something like User Account Control. Man, if only those dudes in Redmond read /.
Yeah, good one. But the User account control isn't adequate - obviously. How many typical Windows users who get their machines that start up right with the Admin account even know about the User Account Control? Windows does have plenty of features to protect the machine, but no one is using them because they don't know about them.
With Linux, you must create a user account and if you try to login as root - which isn't an obvious choice put in front of the user, btw, you get warning boxes stating that you will be taking on quite a bit of risk. Or stated another way, with Linux, admin account access isn't as easy or obvious as it is with Windows. Windows is capable of that but it's not being implemented. With most Windows installs the Admin account is the default logon and most users don't know what risks they're taking because of it.
Now, considering that the typical PC owner uses their computer as an appliance and are not interested or (mistakenly) concerned with user rights, I think at the very least, the OEMs should put a default user account in Windows systems with at least one hoop to jump through for admin access.