In the ML (now called AI) space for example, it's not uncommon to download random binaries from the internet containing model weights, scripts, etc. Sometimes even at runtime (!!!) Lots of bad practices across the industry there that wouldn't be tolerated in other contexts.
IME, half the instructions got tested just once prior to publication, on the developer's laptop or if you're lucky AWS instance and that's it. No pinned versions of anything, so if you come across something you want to try (or rather, if it gets pushed to your desk by someone higher-up accompanied by a "we need AI now!!!" note) you'll first have to spend hours upon hours trying to pin down Python package versions just to get the Python part to install, then you gotta mess with CUDA versions because obviously these haven't been documented either... Nasty shit.
I still haven't found any way to run it in a VM using consumer hardware (GPU continues to refuse to work). A second install of the OS on a second drive is so insanely clunky to switch between, I'd really like to not have to keep doing that.
in 2013 I had to buy hardware for it but by 2018 everything supported it out of the box
I haven't checked recently but a while ago most distros defaulted to letting anyone peep into other users' home dirs. Moreover there has been so many exploits over the years letting a user gain root privileges that, for the purpose of security, unix users are akin to a bathroom lock.
Yeah, no.
(I was looking into it in the context of running Fusion 360 in a Windows VM though, not Stable Diffusion or any ML.)