Sudo and other ways to avoid root

William Sterns at LinuxMonth writes: “It’s time to admit my guilt. 🙁 For someone who can write an article on why you shouldn’t be root, I’m still use it too much myself. Bit by bit, I’m finding ways to avoid it.

When I first had my own Linux system, I learned early that most of the system setup tasks I need to do had to be done as root. Isn’t it easier to log in as root and do all my work that way? It certainly was, and for a few months, I
did exactly that. The problem was that I didn’t know how to efficiently perform tasks as root without logging out and logging back in – ugh! Well, I’ve been using Linux for seven years and I’ve got a few techniques that I’d like to
share.”