Spring Into Linux®

Account Types

All accounts are not equal. Each account has a set of privileges—a set of actions it is allowed to perform. There are two types of accounts:

• Root: The root account, called the super user, is allowed to do anything. It can access every file, directory, and program on the system. Every Linux system must have a root account.

• User: User accounts are more restricted. Unless given additional permissions, user accounts can only access directories and files and run programs that were created using the account itself.

During installation, a root account, and probably one or more user accounts, were created and given passwords. Don't forget the root password. You must use the root account to make changes to the system. Root can add new accounts ...