Administrator as Root

[The Cog]

Maybe not a big thing but
as an example, i can be accessing a file , ubuntu gives access denied,or permission denied, fedora prompts for password.

By can be accessing a file, you mean in nautilus, the file manager? If so, I've never seen that before, and to be honest I had never thought of the idea: I always just launch a root file manager when needed (maybe once a week). I wonder just how useful that would be in real life. Hmm...

[MadmanRB]

you can open nautilus as root in ubuntu using unity via the launcher.
or installing the packages from https://launchpad.net/~nae-team/+archive/ppa
Also, pcmanfm

[dodo3773]

Teapot and tempest.

Fedora, etc., allow ordinary users to be added to the wheel group. The sudoers file can, optionally, be edited to allow a user in the wheel group to, for example, do a "sudo command" without being prompted for a password.

By default, Ubuntu does not have a wheel group. (It doesn't prevent the creation of one.) So, I can't execute "sudo command" without a password prompt, because I need to be in the wheel group to enable that.

If someone wants to use the more traditional approach to acquiring root privileges in Ubuntu, and they know how, they can easily do that.

In Fedora, I can do "su -", for example, enter a password, and become root. I can't in Ubuntu. The root user exists, though.

In Fedora, I can do "sudo -i" and escalate my privileges to root for as long as I wish. Ditto in Ubuntu.

In Ubuntu, do a "sudo whoami" and see what it says.

As for the Windows Adminstrator comparision, it's been more than 10 years since I used Windows. But, I do recall that some versions of Windows tried to generate a false sense of security by prompting for a password to do almost any little thing. The easiest way to avoid this annoyance was to simply run as a Windows Administrator. Unix/Linux uses an entirely different design. If a Linux user is frequently asked to acquire root privileges trying to accomplish routine tasks, then, more than likely, that user is doing something very wrong.

You don't have to use wheel as your group preference for sudo without a password. Also, if you want to su to root all you have to do is change your root password. It's all pretty trivial. As you said already though: Teapot and tempest.

[mamamia88]

The notion of an "Adminstrator" is, more or less, a Windows-ism. Administrator privileges in Windows are directly comparable to root privileges in Unix/Linux. Broadly speaking, you can either log in as root, become root temporarily, or use the sudo command to escalate your privileges to that of root on a command-by-command basis.

By default, Ubuntu limits the ways you can acquire root privileges. This is to keep users from doing something like becoming the root user, forgetting they did this, and unintentionally deleting system files they would not be able to delete as a normal user.

Hence, the recommendation to just use sudo.

However, you can use "sudo -i" in a terminal to acquire root privileges, keeping them until you enter "exit".

There's nothing in Unix/Linux that requires users to constantly run as root, unlike Windows where many users always needed to run as the Administrator. If someone is constantly staying logged in as root in Unix/Linux. they do not understand the system they are using.

I still don't understand how a person could "accidentally" delete something as root in linux. To delete something as root you have to first either use sudo rm path/to/file. A user may delete something thinking it would have one outcome but it might have another doesn't mean that it was an accident. And how did you forget you became root? Worse case scenario is you leave a terminal window open with a # showing instead of $. you would still have to type rm and spell out the path to the file to delete it. root by itself is kinda harmless just like guns. a gun has never killed someone without a person behind the trigger. it may be stupid though to give everybody guns by default though. i could argue that i could do just as much damage with sudo as i could su. you hand over your gun to a crazy person and you are asking for trouble.

[Woodzman]

Recent events have me wondering, besides Fedora, are there other linux distro's
that allow administrator privileges as Root?

The only distro's that give the features that you are looking for are Slackware, Crux and Zenwalk
which is Slackware based. Slackware sets the root account at installation and does not ask you to establish any other account.

[haqking]

The only distro's that give the features that you are looking for are Slackware, Crux and Zenwalk
which is Slackware based. Slackware sets the root account at installation and does not ask you to establish any other account.

To be clear for the OP, EVERY Linux distro allows logging in as root and you never have to use another account if you dont want to (though as i mentioned before least privelge should always be used)

As far as Installation goes though and not "having" to create another account to use with sudo or similar and giving root a password at installation then there are a few.

Peace

[sioxs]

Debian and most variants enable the root account by default. Straight Debian doesn't come with sudo configured.

Yes it does!
But you have to install from the Advanced features not the standard GUI Install

Peace!
"We can't solve problems with the same kind of thinking we used when we created them"