Gnome enforces barriers to viewing files requiring root privileges. Trying to open /var/log/boot.log file with gedit fails, with no visible option to perform this action as root from the GUI file manager. What is the Gnome doctrine for dealing with situations like this? I know that I can use sudo gedit, but that makes it more cumbersome than launching an application from Nautilus, pardon me, Files.

A close-to-ideal solution is provided by Nemo, the file manager in the Cinnamon desktop. It gives you an option to open a directory as a root, and then you can open this file with a text editor.

Another option is to enforce permissions in the editor on file save, not on file open. It could allow opening any file in read-only mode, which doesn't present any safety concern. This used to be done in the past somewhere. The current design is unnecessarily authoritarian.