compare access control list windows linux mac os

MAC is popular and has an overall user base of 7 over the world. Linux is the least used operating system, with users accounting for 1. Windows is dominant over the other two as 90 of users prefer Windows. Conversely, Microsoft is fighting an uphill battle to train and, to some extent, restrain Windows users from using accounts that are far too powerful, while Linux users almost always are given least-privileged accounts from the start. Though all three are widely used, there are significant differences between Linux vs MAC vs Windows. Windows users use file-level ACLs by habit, which is a good thing, while Linux users continue to use an outdated owner-group-world permission model that is outdated, even when ACL support exists on the very same Linux system. To me, the real difference between Windows and Linux access control is more about the mindset of users than the technology. On a technological front, I would compare UAC with sudo. While an absolutely pain in Vista, it’s certainly livable in Windows 7 (I know, since I type this on my Windows 7 laptop). Windows User Access Control (UAC) was designed specifically to address the problem of Windows users and applications being given too much power out-of-the-box. In fact, tools such as su are so frequently used, and have such a long history, that most Linux users assume they won’t have administrator privileges, while Windows users (and applications) often assume the opposite. Su is not a very granular delegation tool, but sudo is, and both are almost always available on Linux and UNIX systems. The Linux world has always relied heavily on the su and sudo tools to delegate authority. If process-level security, then certainly not.

Compare access control list windows linux mac os