Linux Online - Getting Started with Linux

Getting Started with Linux - Lesson 3

Working with Linux - First Things First

When you work as root

You have now installed Linux and the first thing you did was login as 'root'. Then you provided a password so that you and ONLY you could login to the system as 'root'. When you decide to work as root, you had better go into a phone booth first and change into a blue suit with a big 'S' on the front because 'root' is known as the 'superuser' (you can skip the red tights if you want).

That's really not meant to be just a witty reference to the Man of Steel. Actually, it is much more glamorous to be 'Superman' but root is actually more like the 'janitor' of the Linux system. Root has the keys to everything. He can shut off the lights, shut off the heat, lock you out of the building; he has to clean up the system and in the end make sure everything runs. And the most important thing about being a janitor - he sees everything.

'root' is not for routine work

As I mentioned, Linux makes your computer a true multi-user system, which means that besides root, you can and should work as another person. I say 'should' because doing routine work as 'root' could be hazardous to your health. When I first started using Linux myself, information was not all that readily available and I still had that 'one computer- one user' concept in my brain. It was after I had trashed all of the files and programs that make Linux run that I realized that working regularly as root wasn't a good idea.

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