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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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How come Windows and macOS users don't have to enter their password every time they need administrator privileges? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Isn't it enough to just enter your password once to login, then receive a warning whenever you're about to do something potentially dangerous?

If it's such a big security risk, how come the most popular and widely used operating systems in the world and their users seem to be unaffected by it?

I guarantee, most new users coming to Linux from Windows/macOS are going to laugh and look at you funny if you try to justify entering your password again and again and again.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

AFAIK the user account created by default on windows will be a full privilege account, so won't need a password to gain admin through UAC. Essentially the same as Linux where you can gain root privileges through sudo by using your own password.

But if you create an account with standard user privileges it will ask your for the password to an administrator account to gain admin. I'm not sure what the linux equivalent of this would be, denying sudo access would be too restrictive so maybe there's an in between where you need the password to an admin user to gain sudo.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

The linux equivalent would probably be using su to switch to an account with sudo access or straight-up to root.