From: brian@jaguar.cs.utah.edu (Brian Sturgill)
Subject: Re: Multiuser
Organization: University of Utah CS Dept
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 92 07:34:24 GMT

In article <1992Oct7.063620.16497@netcom.com> msmith@netcom.com (Martin P. Smith) writes:
>In article <1992Oct6.131605.15955@hellgate.utah.edu> brian%jaguar.cs.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Brian Sturgill) writes:
>>In article <1992Oct6.123731.25876@ms.uky.edu> sam@ms.uky.edu (Mike Mills) writes:
>>>Thanks to everyone who explained to me NT's multiuser capabilities.  I agree
>>>that being able to provide security for multiple people is MUCH different
>>>than allowing those people to be using the machine at the same time.
>>>
>>>Thank you very much Paul and Brian for distorting the facts.  Yet another
>>>reason not to buy Microsoft products.
>>
>>Where did I distort the facts... and how am I related to Microsoft?
>>
>>>
>>>It seems rather silly that NT supports symmetrical multiprocessing, and gives
>>>that power to all of one user at a time.
>>Where did you get this information from?  It's true the graphics
>>system allows only one user at the console at a time.
>>But this is not different even from X.
>
>
>Excuse me but you can rlogin as many users as you so desire from as many
>windows as you desire under X-Windows.  
>
>Under SCO Unix you can have up to 12 virtual ternminals
> ( Even character based ) from the console each of 
>which is a seperate login to the machine and can be logged in as i
>different users.
>
> Brian have you used UNIX ????

You can do this under NT too.  NT's Windowing System, just as
under X, causes the display hardware it attaches to, to belong
to a single user during the duration of that login session.
I.E. when user joe starts X, then joe owns that X session.
NT is better than many X's in that when joe logs in, only joe
and those users joe allows can write on joes screen, create
windows, etc.

>
>>
>>You can have background tasks executing as other users... and if you
>>provided the login program... people logged in via serial ports.
>
>This doesn't get away from the fact that NT does not provide concurrent     
>multi user out of the box. Also there are no currently available tools to
> do this. 

NT does provide the actual program equivalent of /bin/login, but its
kernel does provide more sophisticated equivalents of user id, group id,
setuid(), getuid(), etc.  The equivalent /bin/login program
can be written in a similar number of lines of code.

>
>The facts you tout about multi user for NT WRT remote logins are just as valid
>for OS/2 and in fact OS/2 is one better in that they are here NOW. (OS2toYOU) 

OS/2 does NOT have the same feature, even with OS2toYOU.  OS2toYOU only
provides passworded logins.  Once the user is given a shell they
have full privileges to all the system.  OS/2 has no concept of user id.
NT has full fledged separate users id's with corresponding
levels of privilege.

>
>Brian lets have less of the bullshit and politicing and more real fact.

Please know what you're talking about before jumping all over me.

>
>Martin Smith
>msmith@netcom.com

Brian
-- 
C. Brian Sturgill                I strongly encourage you to read Ross Perot's
University of Utah                             United We Stand
Center for Software Science             How we can take back our country.
brian@cs.utah.edu; CIS: 70363,1373  (It's more important than OS/2 vs NT! :-))