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I will be using a lot of free wifi spots soon. I currently have 1 user which is admin. Should I create a standard user and use it while I am away from home? I ask because even if I want to do something important I have to enter my admin pass anyway on my admin account. So is it really worth it?

I will be programming and using the terminal a lot, which I believe should be okay on a standard user.

Also if I install a new software, lets say Android Studio, will both users get access to the software or do I have to install it for both users?

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OS X is quite different from Windows in that regard, and the typical advice not to run as Admin user does not really translate to OS X so easily. You talk about "worth", but there is no inherent advantage from running as a standard user. The existence of (rightfully?) scared Windows users probably plays into that.

Like you observed, when you do "something important" (i.e., something that requires actual root privileges), then anyway you will have to enter your password. This alone should make you cautious when installing stuff—and it wouldn't be different for a standard user either: you'd have to log in as an admin user when performing such actions.

Conversely, if you ran everything as a standard user, but wanted to get involved with programming, Terminal access, et cetera, then you'd frequently have to change to an admin user instead (one that can run sudo), and you'd find that many things simply don't work—or at least not so easily. The standard user really was just designed to run non-critical apps and have everything, well, set up by the admin. (That's the whole point, right?) Note that some apps can be run just fine with multiple user accounts (Android Studio is one of them, I suppose), but I'd just go the path of least resistance and use the system like it's intended to be used.

So no, run as an admin user all of the time if you're the admin of that machine. It'll save yourself a lot of hassle getting things set up.

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  • I don't use OS X much, so that may be why I am confused by the justification given in this answer. Doesn't this mean that he will be running commonly exploited applications like Web browsers, pdf viewers, and office software with root privileges? Root privileges which would give an exploit write access to his whole filesystem? On all Unix systems this is a gigantic no-no, why is OS X any different? Yes people have to elevate their privileges sometimes, but generally only to run or install trusted applications which while being run are mostly insulated from outside attacks.
    – Kevin Follstad
    Oct 18, 2014 at 11:57
  • No, root is not the same as an admin user. An admin user may become root when needed (e.g. installing kernel extensions or system-wide programs) but will otherwise run everything non-privileged. A standard user can never become root unless they know an admin's credentials.
    – slhck
    Oct 18, 2014 at 12:01
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You could consider just adding the “standard” user to sudo it certain tasks.

“standard user can never become root unless they know an admin's credentials“. - slhck

Wrong, I found this on twitter, they just need to be on the “fdesetup list.”

Boot #macOS in single user mode. /sbin/mount -uw /System/Volumes/Data vi private/etc/sudoers

SCROLL DOWN Add user

[userName ] ALL = (ALL) ALL

exit vim and force overwrite

Esc, :wq! Works in Catalina 15.4 From there elevate self to Admin.

New Sudo update might change things. https://thenewstack.io/sudo-update-offers-python-plug-ins-extended-logging-auditing/

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