It is possible. What flavour of Linux do you use. Also remember the point is well made that in any environment built for security you would have to do the same. I have worked in a windows environment where administrators had two id's. One for normal use and one when admin or installation or backup tasks needed administrative privileges. Windows has these too but they are just disabled or not fleshed out so don't knock Linux for the model. For the kids I use Puppy Linux where you are always working as root.
http://www.puppylinux.com or
http://www.puppylinux.org/
and it has been great for me on occasions where I want to do something without bothering with (not often) ceromony. :-))