I will use admin
and root
interchangeable for explaining the following:
When you use sudo su
, you are basically saying "use my permission in the sudoers file and log me in to the root user."
When you use sudo
, you are basically saying "use my permission for current user (who is in sudoers file) and execute the following command which comes after sudo."
Sudoers file is a file that defines the permission for various users in UNIX and Linux and whether or not they can run commands as sudo (super user do).
When you use su
, you are saying "start a new session and log me in as root directly, without checking sudoers files, and I will provide the credentials (password)."
The difference in UNIX is the management of the admin account. Root exists for the entire system. All users are allowed to log into root if they provide the correct credentials. For all accounts, any user can run things as though the user is root
(su
) by adding the particular user account to the sudoers file. This means that any user account can execute sudo commands as if it was an admin account by only providing the user's password. And the user does not have to know the root password. It basically says: "I know what I am doing, let me do it." And it means that a user can execute as both a regular user and admin in one session, without having to log in and log out of accounts.
While in Windows, the admin management is handled differently. A sudoer file does not exist in Windows. A user is either administrator or not. However, if the user is administrator, he can still run things as a normal user without going to OS permissions right-clicking an doing Run as administrator.
Also, there is no overall root account for Windows unless it was set by whoever set up the system.
The way admin privileges are managed is different, nothing else.