I found a (lengthy) guide to doing this but it is for gksu which is gone. I have to imagine there’s an easy way. I am running Ubuntu. There is no specific use case, it is just a feature I miss from windows.
EDIT: I always expect a degree of hostility and talking-down from the desktop Linux community, but the number of people in this thread telling me I am using my own computer that I bought with my own money in a way they don’t prefer while ignoring my question is just absurd and frankly should be deeply embarrassing for all of us. I have strongly defended the desktop Linux community for decades, but this experience has left a sour taste in my mouth.
Thank you to the few of you who tried to assist without judgement or assumptions.
It may default to root but it doesn’t mean run as root. Su means substitute user identity i.e. any other user (if you have the rights to it).
Both
suandsudooriginally meant “superuser” because that was their only use. They have retroactively been changed to “switch user” because this functionality was added later.Just citing a source in case anyone wants a little history: su.
I know, but explaining all that for just a comment on why I found funny the “run as sudo” seemed too much.