Re: How is typical home computer used today?
On 12/10/2014 10:16 PM, Marc Shapiro wrote:
On 12/10/2014 02:42 PM, Joe wrote:
Proof of Concept. A bit short of a prototype.
There are two different concepts here, almost no home *workstation* will
be used truly multi-seat i.e. with more than one person connected
simultaneously to it. A home computer may have multiple users, but
generally not simultaneously. A simultaneous-multi-user computer is by
definition a server of some kind. My home contains one of those, but
most peoples' won't. They are becoming more common, with cheap Windows
versions aimed at home server use, with a particular emphasis on media
playing and backup of workstations. The tiny and very cheap Raspberry
Pi and other similar devices are being used as servers, but generally
for very limited purposes, and certainly not as multiple-user
workstations.
I think this is a particular issue for DEs, that causes the complexity
in Linux desktops. You are not only sharing the display, but all of
the devices, raising a number of technical and security issues.
When the desktop is remote, there are other issues, like sharing sound
over the network. My hunch is that all of these issues are related and
derived from the old timesharing model. I am concerned about what Eric
Raymond calls "mission creep and bloat ... likely to turn into a nasty
hairball."
Even if systemd succeeds, and we learn that the only solution for these
is a giant sprawling monolithic system that only the developers
understand, I still think we need a new approach. My problem is that
I don't know how or if a more distributed and modular approach would
solve this problem, so that is one of the biggest uncertainties.
<snip>
My wife, daughter and I each login to a
separate vt. It makes no real difference who logs on to which vt, but
usually we each log in to a particular vt.
<snip>
Space is the reason for a single computer. If I can get the family room
remodeled then we might set up a second computer (I have a spare sitting
around doing nothing) there, but that is still one less computer than user.
That seems like a valid use case. I wonder if a suspended VM would serve
the same purpose. Hopefully there are other, better ways to do this.
Marc
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