How common is not having root access on your computer?

This was a strange one: when I worked for a FinTech company that shall remain nameless, I had a work laptop but I had to RDP to a remote machine. I had full Admin access to the remote work machine (that had access to everything, even being in the same datacenter and subnet as the production servers), meanwhile, for "security reasons", I couldn't even change the wallpaper on the laptop.

I was handed a Linux laptop and wasn’t put into sudoers or group wheel.

I had to point out that I already had root on all of production and this made no sense. They eventually fixed it.

Nobody else had this happen to them when they got a Linux laptop. Curious.

The flip side to that question is "Who is the owner of that computer?"

If you own the computer, naturally you should have root acccess. If somebody else owns the computer, then that's their prerogative as to whether or not you get root access.

There are hundreds of reasons for you not to get root access ranging from industrial espionage, to reading porn at work, or to stop you from installing malware.

Build a better relationship with your IT department (or whomever that matters) so you can get more leeway and/or that root access you want.

The joy of asking people if they can delete icons on my (windows) desktop. To answer your question (anecdotally), I didn't have root access the first few months at my current job.

Good question, I wonder if this even differs by industry and number of employees.