[Wylug-discuss] Switching Users

[Dave Fisher]

On Fri, Apr 02, 2004 at 05:29:34PM -0500, Daniel Eliades wrote:
> Hello everyone-
>
> I am currently talking my family into switching from Windows XP to SUSE 9.0.
> I have a few questions which I need answered before I do the switch.  Is it
> possible with linux to switch users?  What I mean, is that I want one person
> logged on to the internet using AOL Instant Messenger and when they switch
> users or log out I want them to still be logged in but for another user to be
> logged in as well.  Please let me know if this is possible or if you need
> more information.  Thanks a lot in advance-
>

Hi,

If you mean "is is possible for one person to log out of SuSE and then
log on again with a different username, while a second person continues
to use the system with their own username?" the answer is "yes".

Unlike Windows, Unix and Linux were designed to be multi-user systems
from the start.  Any number of users can be logged on at any time, with
whatever usernames they are authorised to use.  It is quite normal for a
single human being to be logged in to a system with many different
identities at the same time, while hundreds of other users are also
logged in with multiple identities.  That is, however, only practical if
you have multiple terminals (or PCs) connected to the system (usually
over a network these days, but historically through serial ports), i.e.
it's quite difficult for people to share the same keyboard/mouse, etc.

It's entirely normal for one person to have many simultaneous logins
from the same terminal/workstation, but that is usually achieved via
command line login using a terminal emulator  (e.g. xterm, konsole,
gnome-terminal, etc.). Since most people have only one display/terminal
in front of them, it's not really practical to have multiple
simultaneous graphical logins ... just one of many reasons why the
commandline is not an outdated tool for old beardies!

With the right configuration you can run any number of graphical
applications on a remote system, but displayed on your local
workstation/PC monitor simultaneously, via a commandline login.

If you mean "is it possible to log out of AOL IM and then
log on again with a different username, while a second person continues
to use AOL IM with their own username?" that's an AOL question, rather
than a Linux one, but I'd be surprised if you couldn't.

Hope that helps.

Dave