Out of interest, what is your use case? I've not seen a gui app that requires root that doesn't prompt for it when you start it up.

Use bash-completion, it is much faster than clicking menus.

every distro I’ve tried has a strong sense that if you’re using the GUI you don’t need or deserve admin controls

GUI tools are not suited to be run as root in general. Few ones that are have special measures taken to prevent gaining privileges by another process, e. g. run a background non-GUI process as root and GUI communicating with it as an ordinary user. Such tools (package managers, system tweakers etc.) are usually configured to get required privileges via polkit (e. g. pkexec synaptic to run GUI package manager in Debian). Don't use sudo to run GUI programs!

but every distro I’ve tried has a strong sense that if you’re using the GUI you don’t need or deserve admin controls

It's not that you don't need or deserve it. The thing is terminal tools are already available. To get the same stuff with GUI someone is going to have to make that stuff. Most people with the skill to make things like that probably don't care enough about GUI to be inspired to make such tools. Since using the terminal is easy and natural to them. When it comes to FOSS, since people work on it in their free time with no payment, they are likely to only put significant effort in things that they would use themselves.

Find the .desktop file for the desired program (should be in /usr/share/applications) Right click, properties, then somewhere in that window, it should show the exact command that the .desktop file invokes when launched. In that command should be the actual program name (ie, /usr/bin/firefox-esr, firefox-esr is your program name).

Alternatively, right click, "Open With", choose a text editor, then you'll see a couple lines of information. One of those lines of info should be that command as well.

Edit, to be fair, I'm also not a fan of Gnome's obfuscation of program names. It may make sense for very new users, but I also found it counterproductive in certain use cases

Running GUI programs as root is going to introduce you into a world of pain. But you have been warned now, so if you proceed, let the pain become a learning experience, young padawan.

KDE Plasma.

Really, GNOME is not a good Desktop for poweruser tasks like that. Either oversimplified GUI or terminal.

You can create a new desktop file, where you add pkexec in the Exec line.

Desktop files are in /usr/share/applications. Find your app there. Copy it's desktop file file to the user's application directory, it's ~/.local/share/applications expanded: /home/username/.local/share/applications/. Rename this new desktop file, and in the line starting with Exec add pkexec at the beginning of the command string. pkexec is the graphical equivalent of sudo(kindof). Also change the Name in the file, so you can find it in your menu. (The difference you mention comes from here. On the gui this Name parameter is visible, while on the terminal you call the command from Exec).

When you save the new desktop file, it should show up in your Application menu. If you start this new app, pkexec should bring up a graphical password prompt.

If you use gnome you can edit desktop files with alacarte, it may work with other DEs: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/alacarte

More info, these things are unrelated to your distro, it should work the same way everywhere:

• https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Desktop_entries#Application_entry
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Running_GUI_applications_as_root
• https://man.archlinux.org/man/pkexec.1

I understand your pain. Most things you need to configure are either in your home direct under .config or they prompt for admin if they need it. However, not everything has a convenient gui interface to make config changes. This is mostly ok because configuration is usually done once and then never touched again.This is how Linux works, it just isn't a like for like replacement for windows, though it can achieve the same goals.

I like a better gui for adjusting audio devices, specifically the sample and bit rates. I haven't found anything that can do it in a straightforward gui.

every distro I've tried has a strong sense that if you're using the GUI you don't need or deserve admin controls

It's more that GUI programs can't be trusted with root privileges. They're not designed for that, and can break things in unpredictable ways.

If you are interested in editing text files as root directly from nautilus, the package nautilus-admin may be helpful. Link

As I am using KDE, I know that Kate, the KDE text editor, prompts for the sudo password when saving an edited text files that is owned by root. I don't know if Gedit does the same.

Right click on program in menu and choose "edit" or something? Don't know if your particular DE supports that, though.

@flork Granted it's listed in a mimeapps.list file, you should easily be able to pull the program name out of there by querying against the file in question's mimetype.

And while "can't be easily done" may be generally true, don't call it quits; some file managers may offer less "not easy" than others. Don't end your customization exploration because the file manager you currently use can't do what you want, try fiddlin round with some others. The process for each file manager is going to be different, and getting the name of the program for any filetype is also going to differ depending on the syntax required for altering each different file manager.