...like Windows. A bad program running in userspace can essentially
ruin your system as much as a program running as root.
How so?
Are you talking about pre-Vista - i.e. versions of Windows in which the user created during first run was an Administrator, and UAC didn't exist - though you could certainly create non-administrator accounts? Vista came out eight years ago...
Or do you mean pre-NT, when there was no separation of any kind? NT came out 22 years ago...
I mean that most of the "important stuff" is running in user space. You can shut down the computer, spread viruses, and delete the user's most important files. The only administrator-owned files on a typical Windows installation happen to be the replaceable ones. The ones modifiable by a user are the custom, personal, and sometimes irreplaceable files.
This is mostly true on personal Linux machines as well. I'm just expressing my opinion that you don't need root access to pwn someone's machine.
Are you talking about pre-Vista - i.e. versions of Windows in which the user created during first run was an Administrator, and UAC didn't exist - though you could certainly create non-administrator accounts? Vista came out eight years ago...
Or do you mean pre-NT, when there was no separation of any kind? NT came out 22 years ago...