People who just want to get email or browse

...

the web should use a phone or a tablet that can't do anything

else, or screw

...

up anything else. Etc...

The industry's solution to that is to create locked down devices where they control the firmware and you can't tamper with it (settop boxes, "intelligent" thermostats, cell phones).

Exactly.

Of course, this assumes that *THOSE* people are any better at shipping and maintaining bug-free software than the rest of us.

How much do they really care when people throw those devices away within a year and get new ones?

If, as a business owner

...

or administrator, you put a general purpose computer into the hands of an employee, then you have a basic responsibility to know how to

protect it and

...

maintain it, or to hire, or contract with, someone who does.

I'd distinguish between small, medium and large-scale businesses. Smallest of businesses usually have "computer guy" on speed-dial and leave the machines to fend for themselves. Medium (where "computer guy" or "girl" is in-house) can think about role-based security and implementing login policies and locking down desktops and managing vendor updates. Large-scale businesses (with an IT department) ought to do the things you suggest. The problem I see is that the vast majority of computers are in the SMB world.

Different people have different definitions. My not-for-profit agency has about 140 desktop and laptop computers, 10 servers, and a small number of iPads. The payroll is over 500 people, and the agency annual budget is about $12 million. In the not-for-profit world that makes us a "medium-sized" business. In the corporate world that's a small business, and in MS's eyes we aren't even out of the "Mom and Pop" category.

Still, we have an "IT department": though it consists of 3 people, none of whom work full-time on IT. It's about a 1.67 FTE.

It's not impossible. People need to be educated to do it. People need to stop buying into, or promoting, the notion of "do it yourself" general purpose computing. It was never appropriate for anyone but computer geeks. It's a failed concept in the larger realm.

An awful lot of the dBASE programmers I knew back in the day, started out as the guy who was willing to try to change the printer ribbon, then it was a batch file, hex codes for the printer to print 132 column, spreadsheet macros and before you know it, client-server over the WAN in four languages :)

Yeah. But I'm old now. So get off my *%@^@ lawn.

Ken