If so, then definitely you wouldn't want to use sudo. Using sudo like in the first message would be trying to modify the root user's configuration.
Most things on Linux are configured for the user who's logged in. Few things are configured for the whole computer. If a person uses sudo or "su -" to modify a setting, quite often they'll end up modifying the root user's configuration, not the system.
I am not sure if there are readers on this list for these obvious things. Regardless, "you" above should not refer to me, if it does.
greg