Welp, I'm new

Root is like administrator on Windows

As someone said above, root is a special user account in Linux used for system administration, just like Administrator in Windows. It is the most privileged user on the Linux system that has access to all commands and files and can do many things an ordinary user cannot, such as installing new software, changing the ownership of files, and managing other user accounts.

Permissions in Linux are designed to keep users from accessing other users’ private files and to protect important system files. It is a complex topic; you have more info here:

http://linux-bible.com/permissions/