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icedlightblue, many distros carry graphical tools for user administration. The command line tools are more or less ubiquitous, and it's easier to give instructions for the command-line tools in these forums. Which distro are you asking about, and what desktop environment are you using?
Yes it is better to create an ordinary user account for your day to day activities. There are several reasons for this. Since the root account has no restrictions, any mistakes you make won't be stopped by permissions (the common example is deleting a directory by accident). Also, any malicious events (dodgy web scripts, etc.) run as the user you're logged in as so your system could be affected by them.
If you create an account for your day to day stuff, the main risk is to your data. So make sure you have an automated backup process (cron can help you there).
There's plenty of stuff on google about root accounts in Linux. Some people will point out that the likelihood of some risks is very small and it's their box so they'll run however it's convenient for them. As long as you make an informed decision, the choice is yours, but I always recommend the conservative approach because I don't like re-building boxes (except when a new Slackware comes out )
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