Can you explain why people always say not to use an admin or root account on GNU/Linux...

Can you explain why people always say not to use an admin or root account on GNU/Linux? I've been using GNU/Linux for about 4 years now and I've always used an admin account and I haven't run into any problems. I'm looking for a legit explanation.

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_least_privilege
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because if you make a single mistake like deleting a folder containing system files you're fucked.
there will be no warning if you delete /boot for instance, shit's fucked

yeah man I go around accidentally trying to delete content in c:\windows all day

I see but you don't have these problems with an admin account, right?

error: file '/boot/grub/i368-pc/linux.mod' not found.

grub rescue>

well. Its just to avoid unintentional action what will ruin your os.

it makes it easier for malware to fuck you over

I don't get why people would advice against an admin account. Unless you are making a user for someone in a company then you SHOULD have admin privileges. ESPECIALLY if it's your own computer. Root accounts, on the other hand, might be stupid because you might suddenly do something that requires root access and if you are root then you won't be notified.

For example, let's say you are trying to run a script and without knowing it changes something critical on your computer. Maybe the developer is an idiot and his error handling is just formatting the disk. If you have root then it will just start formatting your disk. If you have an admin account on the other hand then it at least notifies you and ask you to input your password.

it can happen, or accidentally draging a folder into another. shit happen, and with a root account there's no safeguard

Richard can't hurt you, you're safe. You can just say "Linux".

i don't see how an admin account could be a problem unless the user is computer illiterate.

you make user accounts for clueless employees or your mum. if you want to administrate your system you use an admin account. there's no problem with that.

Not talking about just the kernel though.

even if YOU can't possibly make a mistake because you're infallible, it could be a program or a script you're running with root privilege.

It's about controlling privileges. You don't want to run big bloated programs likr firefox as admin. You don't even want to run X as admin. For everyday use a limited user is enough. If something goes wrong such as a random program malfunctioning you want to limits its powers by running it as a limited user.

In fact I run firefox under a more limited slave user who has its own dummy filesystem.

OP here, thanks for the advice everyone.

If you're working with sensitive data, it's another layer of protection. Obviously you can just use root for everything, people did that for years. But having this distinction that those files are mine, and those others belong to system can help in small ways.

This thread is literally the Sup Forums equivalent of vaccines cause autism

Autism causes vaccines

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_least_privilege

Can I weaponize autism?

worked so well for windows xp right

>admin account
What do you mean by this? Do you mean someone in the wheel group who can use sudo? Typically people only say don't run as root constantly.

Because you're giving any piece of software you run permission to fuck up your whole system.
It doesn't even have to be malicious software either, any exploits abused by other people could result in them executing root commands on your machine.
If you don't need programs to run with root permission then why give it them?
It's like giving the postman access to your whole house to deliver mail and hoping he doesn't steal anything instead of just telling him to use the letterbox.

GNU/X/SystemD/Linux and so on and so forth.

It's just the usual freetard assburger babble.
Just sudo the fuck as much you want and nothing bad will happen if you aren't a full retard. ( see point delete /boot for instance)

>Use root account and do stupid shit, breaks os
>Reinstall, make new user account to log into instead of root
>Sudo do stupid shit

How does it help?

GNU/X/SystemD/KDE/Firefox/Krita/Youporn.com/Linux

Hilariously original, but those are overlapping, where GNU/Linux are not.

Can you show how one goes about setting such a thing up?