Re: That XP thing
Re: That XP thing
- Subject: Re: That XP thing
- From: Simon Stapleton <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2001 09:45:38 +0100
From: Thomas Hudson <email@hidden>
To: email@hidden
Subject: Re: Let's hope XP doesn't keep this "one-up" on OS X!
On Thursday, July 5, 2001, at 06:57 PM, Tyler LaGrange wrote:
I almost hate chiming in to these off topic things - but I feel like
this "feature" is being a little distorted. Yes - it is VERY true that
a multi-user system is wonderful in work environments, and school, and
even family, but OSX already has that.
I totally agree with you. Linux has had this feature for a long time
(after all, it did
start out as a terminal emulation program). In Linux you have a
configurable
number of virtual consoles (text based). The X server can be configured
to run
on any number of these consoles. With a simple key combo you can switch
between any number of x sessions, each logged in as a different user. I
think
I've used it once (just to try it out).
Hmmm. Although it's true you can get a separate console up in linux,
and this is _very_ useful at times, it's rather difficult to get
multiple X servers up and running (If you know how many users you've
got, you can hard-code a specific console for a given user's X server to
run on within a home directory XF86Config, but that means you can only
have a specific set of users hotswapping).
Of course, uder LinuxPPC, you can have X in one console, MacOS 9 in
another and 6 other text consoles. Heh.
I'd be interested to see how XF86 4.1 deals with this.
I'd also be interested to see how XF86 4.1 does its 'separate console'
thing under darwin / OSX. If it were possible to make Quartz/Aqua do
this, multiple times, I can't see implementing hotswapping being a
problem. Just set up a hotkey to swap to a new session, and provide
some way of swapping back and forth. there will, of course, be some
significant ram overhead ;-)
On the other hand, the whole concept of having a relatively secure *nix
and then allowing J random user to swap back and forth between sessions
without authentication scares the bejasus out of me. If I'm doing
something sensitive (Like editing my CV ;-) I don't want my boss to be
able to hotswap himself into my session. Not to mention he'd have to
_start_ from my session (he's known as 'periscope' as it is, due to his
penchant for popping up over your shoulder to check on what you're
doing - this would only make things worse)
simon