I think that sudo is by default on any unix based operating system. When installing QtIrreco it sets some lirc command priviledges, so that QtIrreco can use lirc without having to set root password. Little time ago with Irreco, lirc was set running with device boot and people said that battery run low very fast, so we thought that it's better to have lirc started when QtIrreco starts and stopped when you close QtIrreco.