Comment by AnthonBerg | Hacker News Reader

Comment by AnthonBerg | Hacker News Reader

My educated guess is that Windows will never be secure, because as I see it it is an un-designed un-principled heap of low-quality software. Therefore I keep Windows enclosed and strictly locked down in a virtual machine. If I need to do anything I feel is dubious I branch to a new timeline in a snapshot and roll back when I’m done.

This also eliminates the hazard of Windows being unavailable for work due to the slow and uncontrollable update process; Just hop back to the last working snapshot. Update later.

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Edit: To downvoters: Please note that this is a factual and sincere answer to the question “how do you secure your Windows PC?”. This is literally how I do that.

In the comment, my opinion is clearly framed as my opinion, and the rest is a description of a technical workflow, its premise, and its implications. Therefore this is a better candidate for discussion than for downvoting if you disagree. In my opinion. I’m not attached to the fate of my comment, but I prefer the society we are building here to work that way. And that is, I believe, the premise.

I think this is an outdated view of things. AFAIK, Windows is commonly regarded as more secure than Linux out of the box.

Having used Windows for over 20 years and never gotten bit by any malware, I think the quality of Windows security has always been a bit overrated. Being the biggest target for malware has its advantages I guess.

I'd love to see a source for windows being more secure? An out-of-the box install of windows is generally years out of date, Linux installs are usually only 6 months old.

I said it's commonly regarded as being more secure. The source would be the comments on just about every thread anywhere it comes up.

Looking at all the comments here - most people are saying that they don't do very much to secure Windows and that certainly mirrors my own experience.

I personally haven’t got the feeling that Windows is now considered more secure than Linux. I see a consensus that Windows is more secure than it was, but my perspective is that the design foundations are the same as before, and that they are hard to reason about and that the interactions are complex, so I personally will not be placing faith in Windows being as secure, as securable, and as known to be securable as an OS could be.

> I see it it is an un-designed un-principled heap of low-quality software

why would anyone attempt to have a reasonable discussion with you when you lead with such a misinformed "opinion"

It is an opinion. The quotes are unnecessary.

I base the opinion on decades of extensive Windows, Linux, and macOS use as well as software development on all platforms. I have a BSc in computer science. My humble and earnest opinion is that Windows is poorly designed. The thought model behind it appears to me as inconsistent, and this also manifests in how we use it. We can do better and deserve better.

If it is your opinion that this is misinformed, where would you recommend that people with opinions on Windows similar to mine could go and could inform themselves better?

Here’s another perspective: Is it more secure, less secure, or the same, if I run Windows in an enclosed VM and roll back any action which might have side effects I don’t want? I’d think that it was hard to argue anything other than it being more secure. And that reveals my point: In a better designed system it wouldn’t matter.

Can you describe to me which elements of the thought model you find are inconsistent?

As far as where you could go to learn more, I think this book has much of the information you would be interested in, although I'm not entirely sure yet which specific elements of the operating system you're focused on. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/learn/windows-...

> if I run Windows in an enclosed VM and roll back any action which might have side effects I don’t want

I see this as a separate argument for using VMs. The stated use applies to any operating system and I agree it's more secure and a good idea. Can you do the equivalent in other operating systems with a simpler procedure? This is a genuine question, I'm ignorant to that

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