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.
There is a lot of advice in this thread warning you about doing this. Please heed it. Instead, read more about how permissions and file ownership works.
I appreciate the absolute mountains of concern that I am using my own computer incorrectly, but I’ve been doing it this way for more than a decade and have never once broken anything, lost data or exposed myself to a security risk so I think I’m doing ok.
You are absolutely not. It really bad practice. I can not state that enough.
Practice least privilege
I’m not trying to offend you. I just want to help.
I’ve gone swimming in specifically man eating shark infested waters for years and nothing bad has happened. So surely nothing bad will ever happen, and my actions have no risk tied to them. Think about why so many people have discouraged the actions you propose, safety rules are written in blood after all. You can, in fact do whatever you want, just keep it in mind when you are doing something risky.