Despite appearing quite complex at first glance, the Linux terminal is a nifty tool for most tasks, be it installing new packages or troubleshooting the most obscure errors. That said, enabling root privileges for certain actions can seem rather tedious, especially when you’re in the middle of setting up a complicated app. If you’re an average user who leverages their Linux machine for everyday tasks, you might be tempted to simplify your experience by enabling root privileges for every operation.

As someone who has traveled the bug-riddled Linux road countless times, let me tell you that invoking root-level access for all actions is a terrible idea, both from a malware standpoint and for the overall stability of your system.

You’ll have to contend with extra risks

You’re pretty much opening the floodgates for malware to swarm in

Compared to the Windows landscape, the Linux ecosystem may seem fairly secure. However, you’ve got a fleet of malware waiting to sink its teeth into your FOSS-heavy distro, and running everything as root can be the entry point for most harmful software. Let’s say you’re trying to install an obscure application from a seemingly harmless source. Well, using root-level access on your system could compromise its security, allowing malware to easily infect your setup.

When you're not logged in as the root user, applications tend to have certain restrictions on the actions they could perform on your PC. But once you invoke root privileges, your packages – including those afflicted with malware code – can bypass most of the security restrictions. Heck, even if these apps aren’t riddled with keyloggers or other malicious code designed to ruin your day, you still have to contend with security vulnerabilities. If you’re particularly unlucky, hackers could leverage these loopholes to gain root access, giving them all the privileges needed to wreak havoc on your precious system.

Your root-only actions can snowball into major stability issues

Leaving aside the security aspect, you’ll also have to deal with stability problems when running everything inside a root environment. You see, most apps aren’t designed to run with root privileges. As such, granting them access to practically every file on your system is bound to result in serious complications in the long run.

Heck, that’s the whole reason why most desktop environments should be run as a normal user instead of their root counterpart. Even if everything works well in the beginning, assigning root permissions to GUI utilities that don’t require them can cause weird graphical bugs. Then there’s the fact that a misbehaving application with root permissions can potentially bring down your whole system. Checking the log files for an app running with root privileges is just as cumbersome, even more so when you’ve got multiple users relying on the same machine. That’s before you add human mistakes into the equation…

You are essentially your biggest enemy in Linux

If there’s one thing I’ve realized after spending years on Linux, it’s that breaking things is pretty easy – especially when you use root privileges. For one, typos aren’t all that uncommon, and with the wrong command, you could mess up your setup beyond recognition.

The rf command, in particular, can deal irreparable damage to your Linux configuration if used incorrectly. And yes, I speak from first-hand experience. If you’re as prone to fat-fingering your commands as I am, you’ll want to be doubly cautious when modifying system files. Sure, you’re unlikely to encounter file permission problems when running everything as the root user, but the risks of doing so are far too huge.

Creating a separate user is the better option

Only use root privileges when you absolutely have to

If you’ve ever used a modern general-purpose Linux distribution, you may recall setting up a local user, which typically possesses fewer permissions than its root counterpart. That’s where sudo comes into play, as it lets you attach root-level privileges to your commands, and you’ll often use it when performing maintenance operations like updating packages or reading system logs.

Personally, I prefer following the age-old least privilege rule, wherein I grant root access only to those actions (and apps) that specifically require it. That includes everything from normal desktop packages to home lab projects, including Docker containers (which luckily support rootless mode). This way, I’d still be able to recover from any stability issues if (or rather, when) things go wrong.

Disabling the root of all evil is a worthy option if you’re too security-conscious

I’ll admit that I’m a bit too paranoid when it comes to my setup – be it bare-metal Linux machines or even their virtualized brethren. As such, I tend to disable root-level SSH access on most of my systems, and only use the sudo argument when I absolutely have to. I’ve yet to dabble in AppArmor or SELinux, but based on everything I’ve heard, they seem like the perfect companions for my Linux machines (even if they can complicate certain operations).