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I have read that running Ubuntu apps as root is dangerous. Why? Is it still dangerous on a personal non-networked computer? In particular, why shouldn't I run the file manager as root administrator?

IanS
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  • @muru It sort of is, but I think he means running programs as root, like Nautilus. – TheWanderer Aug 24 '15 at 00:23
  • @muru Or you could edit it. I know what's being asked after helping on a previous question by the same person about managing files owned by root. http://askubuntu.com/questions/665012/how-to-totally-remove-the-whole-root-administrator-thing/ – TheWanderer Aug 24 '15 at 00:27
  • @muru Just did. The request was put in. – TheWanderer Aug 24 '15 at 00:28
  • I think the old question does answer my question. The problem though is that I didn't think to search 'why is it bad', so I never saw that old question before posting my new question. I'll leave it to experienced SE members to decide what to do. – IanS Aug 24 '15 at 00:31
  • Maybe leave this question with a pointer to the old question. After all, my question here does ask it in a slighlty different way, that may be found in cases where the other won't be. – IanS Aug 24 '15 at 00:33
  • Foot: shoot. Easiest as root. – waltinator Aug 24 '15 at 02:12

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It's only dangerous because you can delete important files accidentally. On servers and such, giving root a password can make the computer vulnerable to attack, since the all-powerful root is accessible to use to delete files. The only reason logging in as root or using programs as root that I can think of is the possibility of accidentally deleting something that you didn't want deleted or modified.

TheWanderer
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