Fast user switching is nice, but it would be even cooler if you could run two accounts simultaneously using two screens, keyboards and mice. I have a Macbook with an external screen. Is there any software that lets two users work at the same time, each on their own screen using one computer?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Two Users Accounts Simultaneously?
- Thread starter peejay82
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Great reply, Mark.
I agree. It would be counter productive to try having two people working at a single computer. You'd have two sets of all the same processes running. You'd need some clever software developers and one helluva machine. And since there isn't much of a market for software that can do this, no one wants to write the software to do it.
So, if you really need a second computer, get a second computer.
I agree. It would be counter productive to try having two people working at a single computer. You'd have two sets of all the same processes running. You'd need some clever software developers and one helluva machine. And since there isn't much of a market for software that can do this, no one wants to write the software to do it.
So, if you really need a second computer, get a second computer.
Providing you're not doing multimedia work, use a second machine as a networked dumb terminal. Get a cheap PC (as in, 500MHz Pentium or whatever, something that'll cost about 20 quid), or a thin client (eBay often has them) that supports VNC. If you got the PC, install Linux and a VNC client on it. Bonus marks for getting a CompactFlash to IDE adapter so your machine has no moving parts, since you can run some of the Pentiums of that era with passive cooling. On the Mac, install Vine Server. Ideally you will have a gigabit network.
You can do this fairly easily with any Linux box with 2 monitors and a USB hub. It wouldn't require anything that "clever" and UNIX is used to running multiple users at the same time. Having "2 sets of the same processes running" is a non-issue, you already do this if you do fast user switching and log in as another person.
As to whether it would require "one helluva machine" the concept of multiple users logging into a machine dates back to the old Mainframe days in the 60s, any computer today is amazingly powerful compared to that and could handle it easily.
dumb ascii terminals vs hardware rendered Quartz interfaces? There MAY be something to consider there.
Not really. My 1Ghz PPC Powerbook can handle 1 Quartz interface running Leopard no problem. A modern dual core Intel Mac is at least twice as powerful as my old Powerbook (in reality many times more powerful) and therefore could handle easily handle running two such interfaces at once.
The technical reason this can't be done is that the software has not been configured to do so.