Running as root

I've noticed that even though in most circles it's considered standard practice to run your Windows machine as administrator, it's considered almost taboo in the Linux world to run your box as root. While this certainly makes sense on public computers and servers, I really think it's overkill for the average home computer. A user should not have to think about access privilages just to accomplish a simple task. Yes, this is less secure, but in exchange usability is increased, which IMHO is a reasonable tradeoff in a home environment. Also, for a virus to do damage even if the user is running as root, it first has to get onto their computer, which requires a security bug, usually in their web browser or e-mail client. The reason why Windows is so insecure is because IE is a POS. If you have a fully patched system and run Firefox and some e-mail client other than Outlook-Outlook Express, the insecurity of Windows is really overrated, and furthermore, Linux running as root is probably more secure than this setup.

This leads to the question, why can't Linux just let you create multiple root accounts in some obvious way, just like Windows lets you create multiple admin accounts? I don't care if some paranoid security nut thinks this is a bad idea. It's my computer and if I think usability is a higher priority than security I'm gonna just run as root. Intentionally making this as difficult as possible really goes against the Linux philosophy of choice and not having other people dictate how one uses one's computer. I am sure there is a way to do this, at least in effect, but I'm also sure that it's very obscure, probably not easy, and probably not possible in a GUI.

Also, why must so much software be a pain in the arse and not just let you use it as root? For example, Suse 10 won't let me burn CDs as root and instead just nags me. Same with Wine setup tools. Again, this is very frustrating.

Lastly, thinking about this has led me to the conclusion that the Linux community really over-emphasizes security to the point where other merits of the OS are undermined. Some people see the security of Windows as good enough. If we keep putting so much emphasis on security, these people will never see any other merits of the OS, such as its openness, the availability of free software for it, and its versatility.