Updating Mac Software

I realize this question may be very silly to those of you who have used Apple computers before, but I am curious, so I thought I would ask. I have been raised on PCs and have programmed on them ever since i learned how. I just got a macbook pro because i do some media stuff (video and music) and i wanted a nice media-focused laptop. When I got the laptop 'root' was disabled by default, and I turned on the account to install SVN. (I realize this was not necessary, and probably not the best route, but I did it anyway. oops hehe)

My question is, I have started to install all the software updates (the ones recommended and installed via <Apple Icon> -> Software Update...) under the root user. I noticed when you click on the user details when it prompts you to type in your account password, it mentions 'root', so I thought maybe applying updates with the root account was preferred. I have been removing the "Blake" user account it fills in by default and filling in 'root' and then entering the root password. Everything seems to work fine, but I was wondering if it was bad to install updates under root. If the software was originally installed under my regular user account and I update it under root, are there any ill effects? I noticed that some software doesnt seem to work properly unless installed with the root account. Can I just continue to install ALL updates under root? Thanks for the help guys!

You can install updates as root user, but there is little point in doing so.

In fact there is not often much good in using root all the time; it can open up your Mac a bit too much. As an administrator you have all the rights necessary to install apps and Mac OS X updates.

If you absolutely need to perform an operation as the root user on the command line, you can use the sudo command. (SuperUserDO)

Just stick to using your Mac and updating it with administrator priviledges.

Vicky

Thanks, Vicky!

So there is no harm in having had software installed under Admin account, updating it once or twice under the root account, and then switching back to my Admin account for future updates? I just don't want to botch my software installations. Thanks!