I don't think the point is "more secure" root access. Rather, sudo is just a convenient way to invoke superuser privileges only when necessary. If you need a l

I don't think the point is "more secure" root access. Rather, sudo is just a convenient way to invoke superuser privileges only when necessary. If you need a longer session with uid 0, use sudo -i. Having a separate root login is pretty much pointless. I doubt having separate passwords helps security either, since local privilege escalation vulnerabilities are common anyway. I've used sudo to restrict root access to specific command line invocations for certain users. With due care (ie. no access to software with shell escapes) it is secure. In any case, distributions seem to be moving towards eliminating the superuser altogether in common use cases. I think advocating sudo was just the beginning.