[simoncion]

> A finer-grained system would be nice, no doubt, but OS users are pretty time-tested.

Mmmhmm. From what I understand, Android runs each Android application on the system as its own user and handles application permissions by making each permission its own group. Linux's user isolation is pretty good.

Other than lack of manpower and lack of interest, there's no reason why a Linux distro couldn't put in the medium-to-large amount of work it would take to make wrappers to do similar things for their most popular Linux applications. :)

[cwyers]

Anyone who's ever nervously handed their kid their phone so the kid could play Angry Birds for a bit can tell you why Android's method of handling users isn't perfect.

[zeveb]

That's why it's great that Android supports multiple users on a phone. Setting up a guest user is easy, and setting up a dedicated user is only slightly less so.

[nulltype]

I'm not sure what software level protections can stop your phone from being dropped down the stairs.

[cwyers]

Fair enough, but I was more referring to "changing my wallpaper and rearranging my widgets" kind of stuff.

[simoncion]

You misunderstand. Android users are different from Linux users. :)

Android runs Android applications each as a different Linux user.