> I understand not running, say, VLC as root. But Synaptic? It allows you
> to search, install and remove packages. Two of those things can't be
> done without root permissions. I absolutely run it as root.
>
The problem is not what the App is expected to do, but the GUI code may
"accidentally" do beside what you expect.
Most GUI apps use GUI toolkits. Those toolkits are designed to be
cute/fancy/sophisticated/extensible/customizable/..., all of which is
diametrically opposed to safe&secure.
Stefan
