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    it is a good idea, for security reason, to avoid doing as root everything that could be done as normal user, even if you can run sudo or su because it is your machine. fakeroot has two usages 1) it fools programs into believing you are indeed root user, which some badly written proprietary software may require even if not needed (usually Windows developer gone Linux) and 2) it allow emulating file mode and ownership changes which you wouldn't otherwise be able to do, mainly to create a tar file with correct permissions and ownership, useful for example when packaging software. Commented Aug 12, 2014 at 10:03
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    I think the note in the excerpt from About.com sums it up: If you don't understand any of this, you do not need fakeroot! If you can't think of a situation where fakeroot is useful, then you literally don't need it. But people who do in fact need it completely understand the use-case. Commented Dec 5, 2016 at 15:32