the real difference between Windows and Linux access control is more about the mindset of users than the technology. Windows users use file-level ACLs by habit, which is a good thing, while Linux users continue to use an outdated owner-group-world permission model that is outdated, even when ACL support exists on the very same Linux system. Conversely, Microsoft is fighting an uphill battle to train and, to some extent, restrain Windows users from using accounts that are far too powerful, while Linux users almost always are given least-privileged accounts from the start.