I just use kdesu appname. Of course only for those on KDE.. Secure? No idea. Just Works? Yeah! And if it isn't secure I don't care either.I've pretty novice with X stuff, though, so I'd love to hear a secure way of running GUI apps as root that Just Works (tm).
and now to veer off topic slightly for a rant on something I've been wondering about
<rant>I'm on the verge of just (OMG! wait for the blasphemy) logging in as root for daily use. I type in my root password about 50 times a day just to execute a command or edit some config file. Yes I realize that if someone exploits a hole in your software the risk is much greater if you're running as root; but how big is this risk? I've been running MS Windows, not downloading security patches or running a virus scanner or a firewall, for the last 8 years and have never had even the slightest security problem. And yet if anyone suggests running linux as root, everyone goes apeshit and calls them nuts. So how secure is linux when running as root on a desktop box? (no services like ftp/ssh/apache etc running) If its as secure or more secure than MS Windows then I dont see a problem with running as root on a DESKTOP machine. If its less secure, why the hell is it?
</rant> Leo