What Ms Does Right.

Well, the concept of UAC is just to elevate the user to have "administrator" rights to perform things that only administrators could do. Unfortunately for Windows users, unlike UNIX, Windows doesn't really have a real set boundary between "user" folders. Regular users can still write to anywhere on the disc as long as it's not the Program Files or WINDOWS folder. In UNIX, only the root can write to any folder except /home (or $HOME, depending on UNIX setup). Obviously, if the admin allows users to write to certain folders outside of their home directory, that is fine. The idea of UAC is basically like sudo, kdesu or gnomesu, where it allows temporary access to administrator tasks that allows the users to do anything they can as long as the sudo, kdesu or gnomesu is activated for that session.

Pre-Windows Vista era, in order to install programs or do any administrative tasks, you had to run yourself as an administrator. This poses a large security risk since the average user doesn't want to be bothered by constantly reminding themselves to right-click and then select "Run As". Heck, most users don't even know that exists, so they just automatically make themselves administrator.

This allows malware to easy infiltrate the computer. In order to lower the chances, all accounts are defaulted to become a regular user (like in UNIX) and require all administrator to press Continue to confirm all administrative tasks. Yes, it can get annoying since Microsoft loves to treat you as if you're actually dumb. That's why many users got fed up with UAC. This is supposed to be fixed for the next version of Windows, Windows 7. Windows 7 is suppose to allow you to control how many notifications you will receive (even the dumbest option to allow you to turn it off).

I run my Windows Server 2008 installation as a regular user and I don't mind typing the administrator password to install or to perform administrative tasks because I'm so used to that with UNIX. It's a great practice, it just amazes me how long it took Microsoft finally woke up to this minor solution to the bigger problem. UAC saves computers, more Windows XP-users should realize that. At first I criticized it before I started realizing that it's just a more annoying version to what MacOS X, KDE and GNOME had for their respective systems.

Also, as usual, Microsoft slanted that UAC vs. sudo comparison. Unlike their comparison, sudo usually REQUIRE users to type in their password and to answer their 100 users question, the easiest way is to assign those 100 users into a group and assign them to be able to access sudo and require the root password in order to commit root access.

Here's a sample of my sudoers file on my home server:



As you can see, instead of assigning people one by one, I can assign the whole pwrusers group, and must require them to enter their passwords to confirm their actions. Anyone in other groups will NOT be able to continue.

xboxrulz

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This strategy goes back a long way. I was in college at MIT from 1959 to 1963, and during that time IBM "gave" several generations of computers to the college. At the time, very few businesses used computers. IBM's strategy, which worked very well, was to teach the students to use IBM computers, and expect those students to recommend IBM to their employers when they got out of school.

At that time, the mainframe computers IBM sold were quite expensive, so giving them (actually loaning them) to the universities seemed like a big financial risk, but it paid off handsomely for IBM. If it hadn't been for the space program, and its funding of microprocessors, IBM might well be the dominant computer company at this time, and we would be using terminals at home connected to mainframes somewhere else.


Interesting how software folks like to use acronyms. I didn't recognize "UAC" so I did a search on it. Indeed, Microsoft is learning to give credit where it is due: Windows UAC compared to Linux Sudo. Now I know, finally, that UAC means User Access (or Account) Control. Actually, the general concept goes back to the 1970s, when remote access via terminals first became common. The thing that makes it more complex now is the very widespread access to the internet, which invites the introduction of malware.

If somebody around here can point me at a basic explanation of which UAC systems are really effective at preventing malware infections on any platform, I would like to see it. Thanks!

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I can't really say competition for software and operating systems. They basically own a monopoly with Windows and their Office software, so Microsoft is the anti-thesis to competition.

Also, user-friendly-ness is relative. vi in Linux although looks and works archaic, it is quite simple after you learn and get the hang of it. A lot of things in Linux is easier than it is on Windows. Plus, Macs are more "user-friendly" in your sense than Windows will ever be.

I think user-friendly-ness has now become ... how much less effort it takes a user to learn the software.

xboxrulz

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Microsoft has introduced competition for software and operating systems, however this can also lead to antitrust issues that is famous with Microsoft, especially in Europe. Microsoft also has extensive documentation on support (KnowledgeBase and Technet documents).

Also, Microsoft realizes that they need to implement ideas from other software/technologies. This includes the UAC from Linux (which is absolutely amazing!) and things like AJAX in Hotmail and stuff. Although it is fairly different in some areas (open document support, etc), the programs do include more features than free or open-source alternatives.

Finally, the most important thing to most users is user-friendliness.With Linux, it is not user-friendly (even Debian isn't when compared to Windows or Mac). Windows and Office are very user friendly and thus appeal to many users.

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Indeed the C# is helping Microsoft's image. However, many developers still prefer Java over C#. Maybe in the future this may change.

I myself prefer Java.

System.out.println("I love Java =D");

xboxrulz

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