OS X as single user?
OS X as single user?
- Subject: OS X as single user?
- From: Bill Bumgarner <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 1 Sep 2002 22:17:08 -0400
Someone made the following statement in reply to the email Jim DiPalma
posted regarding NeXT and Mac UI features and history. The original
comment was in the context of looking to allow the user the to modify
their OS X filesystem willy-nilly just like OS 9 did...
I thought some clarification was in order.
On Sunday, Sep 1, 2002, at 01:00 US/Eastern,
email@hidden wrote:
Since Mac OS is single-user, there's no reason to do that.
First and foremost, OS X is *never* a single-user system beyond a very
limited featured mode that is available via boot (that does not have a
UI).
There are *always* more than one user configured within an OS X system
-- this is a fundamental part of the Unix underpinnings and, more
importantly, a very key feature in regards to providing maximal power
while also providing security and robustness.
I wrote two articles that deal with these issues that may be of
interest:
http://radio.weblogs.com/0100490/2002/03/04.html
http://radio.weblogs.com/0100490/2002/03/26.html#a152
Bottom line: If it ain't under your account, you shouldn't mess with
it -- you shouldn't need to! Your account is your world -- everything
else is not your world. This is different from the Mac OS 9 (and
prior) days of yore, but the operating requirements and complexity of
OS X (and all other modern operating systems) are way beyond anything
that Mac OS 9 and prior ever tried to address.
b.bum
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