Lawrence D?Oliveiro <
[email protected]d> wrote:
On 10 May 2026 12:27:35 +0100 (BST), Theo wrote:
Unlike Windows, there are no 'Administrator' accounts that have
extra powers.
?root? is an actual ?account that has extra powers?. Yes, it?s easy
enough to set things up so you can log directly into it. It?s your
machine, not under the control of Apple or Microsoft, you can do what
you like.
On Windows, you have have a regular account with administrator privileges,
and that account can Do More Stuff. Most of the time you're being you, and
not being administrator - it's just that your account can do those extra
things when needed.
On Linux, root has administrator privileges but it's a Very Bad Idea to
use root as a regular user account, especially at the GUI. So typically you just borrow the use of root for a short while to do something and then drop back to a non-root user.
In one way of doing things you can 'login as root' eg on a console, do your things, then logout. sudo is just a way to make that more convenient when
you are logged in as another user.
That's not to say you can't login as root on the GUI and run your web
browser, but you may find things don't work properly. There are
increasingly more checks that say things like 'if uid==0 then error else
...' to guard against exploits where the attacker gets root privs.
Theo
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