Literally 0 here, have you really?

Like I literally do not know anyone who is even using Linux to begin with but also people do have “root” in their Windows and MacOS systems. I do not see anyone destroying their computers at random.

Also to steal someone’s information you don’t need root access or any administrative access - if you already tricked the user into running your code then you can steal their passwords or whatever, all of that is user-level data.

* Pedantically speaking, you can not even log in as root, any root level access would have to go through sudo (which is indeed enabled for most users).

* But additionally, even as root, Macs by default have System Integrity Protection enabled, which makes most system files non-modifiable. Users still have full control in that they CAN disable System Integrity Protection, but that involves a reboot and some (documented) command line commands, so most users don't bother doing that.

I accept this metric. It means non-rooted devices are unsafe.

I'm career IT support. In the entire age of smartphones, 100% of the malware/crapware I've seen was on non-rooted devices - most of it pushed on users by manufacturers, carriers and OS devs.

Same here. It's manufacturers and software vendors such as Google and Microsoft that we need to most guard against.

Fully agree wirh your second paragraph, I've only seen viruses on non-rooted devices and I've never had a virus on any of the many rooted phones I've owned over the years.

Sure there are viruses and they can be troublesome but when you look below the surface much of the hype about locking down one's devices comes from manufacturers and software vendors, Google, MS, et al, who benefit financially from not allowing users to control what runs on their phones.

It's not only phones, what Microsoft has done with TPM and Windows 11 and the deliberate obsoleting of millions of perfectly good PCs/forcing users to buy new hardware when it's unwarranted is simply outrageous.

Microsoft ought to be sued for committing environmental vandalism. …And that's just for starters.

To add on, almost all the money people I know who have lost to scams have been through non-rooted devices. Sending an OTP or making a bank transfer because "you're under police investigation" is cheerfully easy even without the user knowing what "root" is.

Also see: the recent phish on Krebs (on security). A malicious email and entering a password to a webpage does not need root access, for better or worse. In fact, a rooted device might block your bank app, actually making money transfer scams tougher, ironically.

It’s also important to learn how the modern abuse industry works. Since the 2000s, malware has grown into a multi-billion dollar highly professional industry used by governments around the world and the scammers have professionalized as well. You should look at some of the YouTube videos of scammers social engineering people into giving them remote access, approving bank MFA challenges, or talking them into making cryptocurrency purchases - and while we might sneer and say they’re uneducated or careless, most of them are distracted or old, just like most of us will be some day. If there’s a prompt, millions of people will approve it and if it means their device can no longer be trusted that’s a lot of money and e-waste.

I don’t like any of this. I want to have root on every device because I grew up with unfettered PCs (first installed Linux .9 using a disk editor, etc. etc.) but the landscape has changed since then. We can’t pretend otherwise, but we could call for regulation to balance the interests of owners and device manufacturers just as we allow people to customize their cars without giving up the concept of safety or emissions testing.

Computers were utopia 20 years ago as compared to today - especially when it comes to privacy, security and user-control.

For you and me, the gunslinger's life has a decided appeal, sure. If that and Buy-n-Large World are the only two options on the table - which so far they have been, though I agree the real answer is to add a better third - can we really say the Matrix isn't the less worse of the two?