one user per monitor?

[ac4lt]

I have a mac pro with two monitors hooked up, a not uncommon configuration these days but I want to do something that I suspect can't be done.

The two displays are for two different purposes. An LCD monitor is on the desk for normal computer use and the other display is for the home theater.

I'd like to give the home theater display it's own desktop and have it logged in as a separate user from the primary display.

So, instead of one dual-head mac. I'd like to turn it into two single, independent heads.

Any idea of such a thing can be done?

 

[CanadaRAM]

No. OSX is not a simultaneous multiuser operating system.

You can kinda sorta do it with VMWare or Parallels, in that the virtual machine can have its own user password, but still its running under the login of the OSX user, and you have just the one keyboard and mouse.

 

[tersono]

The only way of doing it is going to be through virtualisation - i.e. Parallels/VMWare etc.

Parallels is beta testing a version than can handle virtualised OS X - the only problem is that it's designed for use with OS X server only.

Frankly, it's likely to be cheaper, less hassle and a whole lot more effective to just buy a mini, sorry....

 

[ac4lt]

Thanks for your input. You've confirmed what I thought was true.

A mini would have been my first choice, but the mini is a bit underpowered. An iMac would be fine, but I don't have the space for one on the equipment rack. If/when Apple updates the mini, I'll consider it. In the meantime, I'll take my place among the legion of those wanting a monitorless option between the mini and the pro.

MacOS actually will support multiple simultaneous users through ssh. It just doesn't support multiple active desktops. It's a reasonably obvious thing to want to do with two monitors, but probably unlikely to ever be implemented.

Virtualization could work, if I wanted Linux or Windows. I may try some experiments along those lines eventually. I don't really care what OS would get used so long as I can do what I need with IR control. For now, I'll stick to fast user switching, leaving the home theater user active except when I'm sitting in front of the primary m