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This may sound stupid, but I wonder if there is any difference between normal and administrator user accounts (created with the Unity Control Center) except the right to use sudo to become root.

Byte Commander
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  • What else does one need? – waltinator Nov 02 '15 at 21:52
  • @waltinator I don't know, but I remember that when I once used XFCE, there was a long checklist with privileges that one could add or remove from an user account. Like described here: http://askubuntu.com/a/46049/367990 – Byte Commander Nov 03 '15 at 12:57
  • adding a userid to groups (lp,adm, etc) will influence programs that respect those groups. This will allow limited increases in a user account's power. root starts with ALL access enabled. They aren't "privileges". They're not even "capabilities". They're just /etc/group. – waltinator Nov 05 '15 at 18:30

1 Answers1

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The big difference is in the amount of groups user belongs to. In addition to sudo , admin account has access to the following 

xieerqi:$ groups xieerqi
xieerqi : xieerqi adm cdrom sudo dip plugdev lpadmin sambashare

That's pretty much what that settings menu in xfce does - adds an account to groups

By contrast , a regular user belongs only to his/her own group, unless otherwise changed by admin/root accounts.

xieerqi:$ groups tester 
tester : tester
Byte Commander
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Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
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