Re: X-Serving Multiple Virtual Console
On Thu, 27 Jan 2005, Micha Feigin wrote:
What I am looking for personally is something like winXP behavior where
you can do the change user option and have several users running at the
same time without needing to remember which one is on each console.
I haven't seen the XP behaviour but I can tell you that you quickly
remember which display you are logged in on when using X, especially if
you always agree to login on a partocular display each.
The strength of the Unix approach is that it doesn't make assumptions and
doesn't make special cases (unless absolutely necessary). Having multiple
users logged in simultaneouly is the natural state for Unix but it is
really quite new for MS-Windows. Microsoft has made special behaviour for
the console. That may be fine for them but the Unix approach abhors this
as it only introduces complexity that needs to be taken into account later
on (eg, apps wanting to know who is logged in at the console may need to
know about the user swapping capability to get it right).
X is only interested in what display(s) you control. They can be local
or remote. No special code was written to allow for multiple X servers
on the console - it is natural consequence of the interaction of X and a
virtual console. The fact that it worked is a huge endorsement of the
Unix approach.
Rob
--
Robert Brockway B.Sc.
Senior Technical Consultant, OpenTrend Solutions Ltd.
Phone: 416-669-3073 Email: rbrockway@opentrend.net http://www.opentrend.net
OpenTrend Solutions: Reliable, secure solutions to real world problems.
Contributing Member of Software in the Public Interest (http://www.spi-inc.org)
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