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Longhorn to use UNIX-like User Permissions

Posted by Zonk on from the making-their-own-osx dept.

destuxor writes "After years of Windows users abusing administrative accounts out of necessity, Microsoft promises that Longhorn will make better use of user permissions in what sounds exactly like what UNIX/Linux users have been doing for years. Hopefully this will fix the long list of applcations that cannot be run by a Least-Privilege User Account (LUA) while giving a much-needed security boost. Too bad "MS-root" can't watch over your grandmother when she opens emails."

3 of 697 comments (clear)

  1. XP does that. User permissions are not the problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The permission mechanisms in Windows NT/2k/XP are pretty flexible. Unix is only just migrating from the old user/group/world permission set to access control lists, something that is readily available for just about everything in the Windows operating system, from files to individual registry entries.

    The problem with Windows permission management is that a) it is completely hidden from the casual user, b) there are no guidelines how applications can be made to work with restricted privileges and programmers are too lazy to figure it out themselves and c) the default XP install makes everybody an admin, so there is very little incentive for application programmers to get it right.

  2. Re:Come on over to Linux! by Narchie+Troll · · Score: 5, Informative

    'Being root' and running a SUID CD burning application is rather different. In fact, it's entirely different, since you're granted no special rights as a user.

    You do not have to be root to mount anything. That's what /etc/fstab is for, specifically the user flag. That is indeed a bogus claim.

    Most programs can be installed as a regular user under $HOME. I've done it many times on systems where I have no root access. This includes everything from Lua to GTK+. In fact, very few Linux programs require root access to install and use properly.

    Either you haven't used Linux, or you haven't bothered to learn how to use it properly.

  3. Mount points have been supported since 2000 by melted · · Score: 5, Informative

    Mount points have been supported since 2000 in Windows. And hardlinks. ACLs and multiple streams per file were supported almost from the very beginning.

    Before bashing something you should at least RTFM, otherwise you just look like a typical teenage Linux zealot.