Agreed sounds interesting.
There are disadvantages though, for example encrypting each user's files may sound like a secure idea but how can the administrator manage other people's files? For example they might need to reset a user's password or remove some files, they shouldn't be storing from their area.
Someone also raised an interesting point:
. If you run as a non-privileged user then a malicious application can still toast your home directory (i.e. everything that can't be reinstalled)
Yes that's true for Linux, Windows and any other multiuser system.
There must be a way round this.
How about not allowing programs to delete files from the home directory unless they created them in the first place?
But then programs such as the desktop and bash won't be able to do their jobs so there would have to be a special set of permissions for file managers to allow them to work.