If it’s such a big security risk, how come the most popular and widely used operating systems in the world and their users seem to be unaffected by it?

Are they though? My corporate managed Windows machine either refuses an elevated command or asks me for my password/fingerprint. Same with macOS. Just because you don’t secure your Windows machine doesn’t mean other do the same.

I guarantee, most new users coming to Linux from Windows/macOS are going to laugh and look at you funny if you try to justify entering your password again and again and again.

the least pressing concern for any Windows/macOS user. Besides, you can install user-wide application without any password requirement, if you want to change something on system level (and lets face it, when does a regular user does that on a regular basis?) you need to have some sort of security.

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It’s not true admin privileges, windows won’t let you delete system32 the normal way, Linux on the other hand will tell you good luck and bail as you delete everything

You do need to authorize admin action on Windows and it causes severe security issues, because people do it without thinking all the time.

You can also configure Linux to have this behaviour, but for security reasons it works differently out of the box. Also, some programs, such as many terminal emulators, can cache you PW so you don’t have to enter it multiple times.

I use a U2F key for sudo and it’s just one touch. One touch you need to sit in front of my computer for.

I have to do this on both macOS and windows…

You can turn it off but you probably shouldn’t.

Just because anything is popular or widely used it doesn’t mean it is good or correct. Driving drunk with no seatbelt and with your underage children in the seat upfront was legal. Much like vaccines and seatbealts designs are free (as in open) because they were too good to be sold and would be unethical to do otherwise.

So if you think a computer is a simple machine and want to treat it as a screwdriver go ahead, most users are not smart to use computers anyway. Because of that most people do not even read what they are installing much less the messages they appear and then they ask why they get viruses or why their system does not work.

I guarantee, most new users coming to Linux from Windows/macOS are going to laugh and look at you funny if you try to justify entering your password again and again and again.

That makes me think that I always thought that security was a joke included with Microsoft products. Already from the MS-DOS days onward. And I guess the other commenter is right : Microsoft does not want to annoy their users.