I don't get the usability argument
Let's take this back a step.
Chad talks about Unix (not just Linux!) being securerer than Windows because there's a mentality in the design that says "if you don't need access to [something] to do [something else], then you shouldn't have access to [something] at all."
Windows has just recently (Vista) started pushing the idea of least-privileged security. Under XP (and for sure, under 9x), everyone... EVERYone.. ran as a local admin. Most software written had no idea what to do when ran as "Guest" or "User". The security restrictions were there -- can't install a new hardware device as User -- but no one took the effort to notice the effects.
Look at the README file that comes with.. anything. "You must be administrator to --"
Now, the tables are slowly, slowly turning. Under 7, I can run as a plain User most of the time. Some software just doesn't work, but most of what I need to do can be done. When I need to do SysAdmin-y things, it's back to Admin I go. The trouble is, even now, the amount of software that "requires" me to be an Admin is somewhat ridiculous. And it does not often degrade gracefully in the manner to which I'm accustomed on my Linux PCs.
On most of my Linux boxen, I do run as root. Because, on most of them, I'm doing things that legitimately require root access most of the time. I use them for development, appliances and special-purpose builds, for administration, and on servers where having a Joe User account would just be an extra step before SU'ing to root anyway.
BUT, when I DO use Linux as a "general purpose workstation", I can successfully run as a normal User. When I need to do something special, like install a package or twiddle with some hardware, I'm either asked for root credentials, the software says "you have to be root to do this", or I don't even have access to begin with ('/usr/sbin' isn't in User's path). Things rarely just crash or give me cryptic errors ("Failed to dongle the system.lib.umathurman.unit: -0x2efe135frodo") like on Windows.
Enough rambling. Let's go back to insulting each other.
