most windows programs haven’t run as root in over a decade.
a program only runs as “root” in one of three situations:
The app manifest says it is a requirement.
The executable does not have an app manifest and has the “Run as Administrator” compatibility flag (only applies to apps built for XP or older).
The user manually invokes the program with super user permissions (right click and “Run as Administrator", or manually set the above compatibility flag).
because that isn’t really how these things work. It doesn’t matter how secure your operating system is, it can still get infected with malware if you let the user download and install arbitrary software. every modern desktop operating system that allows this has this hole.
features that pop up warnings when running code not signed by the OS vendor (like Windows SmartScreen or macOS Gatekeeper) help to an extent, but are not magic bullets since users can still override them.
at the end of the day, the best defense is to make sure you actually trust any software you download before running it.
i’ve had real italian pizza, in italy. it was fucking delicious, but it doesn’t make the best pies i’ve had in places like new york or chicago taste like cardboard with sauce. some places in nyc can absolutely go toe-to-toe with italy.
We’ve also gone from people needing to be independently wealthy to even think about creating great music to just needing a cheap computer. Music hasn’t gotten lazier, the barrier to entry has just gotten lower meaning there is a lot more being made across the quality spectrum.