If It's Not a Security Feature, It's Simply a Pain in the Ass
Normally I'd say "arse", but people might get offended.
Why I (heart) Vista, Part 2
I'd like to share with you a couple of articles, a few quotes.
The first is this one, "User-privilege flaw hits Vista". The UAC (User Account Control) is enough of a flaw in Vista as it is, so I don't really care about that. The UAC is a terribly annoying "feature" that pops up whenever you are trying to do something to warn you that you need administrator access to do it, AND THEN pops up a SECOND message box asking you, under administrator privileges, if you want to actually do it. I think it is obvious that they only needed ONE dialog box here, not two. To make it really obvious that your computer is doing something serious (installing software for instance, or drag-and-dropping certain shortcuts to your desktop - really serious stuff) then the screen spends a couple of seconds going into ultra-serious grey-mode in order to pop up the second dialog, and then going back to normal afterwards.
If UAC encompasses all the permissions and access features on the computer, it is also the thing that stops you from installing certain pieces of software without 5 hours of research, prevents you from writing to certain innocuous folders and stops you from ever being able to fix your computer if anything goes wrong.
Here, however, is the Microsoft reason for UAC that I wanted to point out to you:
And here's the really annoying thing:
Who's computer is it? Mine. So how come my operating system is dictating what I can do? How come it can stop me accessing files and folders on my hard drive? Why is my OS a barrier?
Notes:
Why I (heart) Vista, Part 2
I'd like to share with you a couple of articles, a few quotes.
The first is this one, "User-privilege flaw hits Vista". The UAC (User Account Control) is enough of a flaw in Vista as it is, so I don't really care about that. The UAC is a terribly annoying "feature" that pops up whenever you are trying to do something to warn you that you need administrator access to do it, AND THEN pops up a SECOND message box asking you, under administrator privileges, if you want to actually do it. I think it is obvious that they only needed ONE dialog box here, not two. To make it really obvious that your computer is doing something serious (installing software for instance, or drag-and-dropping certain shortcuts to your desktop - really serious stuff) then the screen spends a couple of seconds going into ultra-serious grey-mode in order to pop up the second dialog, and then going back to normal afterwards.
If UAC encompasses all the permissions and access features on the computer, it is also the thing that stops you from installing certain pieces of software without 5 hours of research, prevents you from writing to certain innocuous folders and stops you from ever being able to fix your computer if anything goes wrong.
Here, however, is the Microsoft reason for UAC that I wanted to point out to you:
Instead of being a security barrier, UAC is intended "to get us to a world where everyone runs as standard user by default and all software is written with that assumption," Russinovich wrote.And yet, all it does is gets us to a world where users and developers alike are unable to do anything without running into UAC barriers.
And here's the really annoying thing:
What's more, Microsoft recently made it clear that it doesn't consider UAC a security feature, since it has deliberately left particular holes in the system for ease of use. That means bugs in UAC aren't security flaws, Microsoft says.It really is ONLY a pain in the arse. It doesn't actually provide ANY security, since any security feature with holes is clearly useless, it just stops the user from being able to use their computer as they please.
Who's computer is it? Mine. So how come my operating system is dictating what I can do? How come it can stop me accessing files and folders on my hard drive? Why is my OS a barrier?
Notes:
- I intend to write an entry at some point on the purpose of an operating system, and about how Vista is overstepping the boundries
- I will never pay money for Vista, and I doubt I would use it if I didn't have to (like, even if I got it for free)
- You might not be able to open both links due to restrictions at the site they go to
- The spell checker on blogger doesn't mind "ass", but can't understand the variants... Weird
- You shouldn't buy Vista unless you have at least the recommended requirements. Don't bother with the minimum requirements, it will work like crap. And don't get the upgrade versions of the OS either, you'll have trouble. Look it up, you'll see, it's a mess
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