The short answer is that it's a very, very longstanding convention that would be a nightmare to change and wouldn't provide any benefits. It's hardcoded into th

The short answer is that it's a very, very longstanding convention that would be a nightmare to change and wouldn't provide any benefits. It's hardcoded into the kernel and who knows what other programs will always assume UID 0 -> root. There's some further reading on Stack Exchange. [1] 1. https://superuser.com/questions/626843/does-the-root-account-always-have-uid-gid-0/626845#626845 https://superuser.com/questions/626843/does-the-root-account...