Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site aesat.UUCP Path: utzoo!aesat!bmw From: bmw@aesat.UUCP (Bruce Walker) Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards,net.micro.pc,net.unix Subject: How is "single-user" done? Message-ID: <330@aesat.UUCP> Date: Mon, 21-Jan-85 08:17:19 EST Article-I.D.: aesat.330 Posted: Mon Jan 21 08:17:19 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 21-Jan-85 09:42:28 EST Organization: AES Data Inc., Mississauga Ont., Canada Lines: 22 [Articles are packed by weight; contents may settle during shipping] There have been a number of articles lately, discussing the merits and problems associated with the various UNIX packages for the IBM-PC. As I am in the market for just such a product, I have been following these with great interest. One point that has been raised concerning some of the Unices (esp. PC-IX) is that they are "single-user". Now this makes me wonder: how did the vendor accomplish this restriction? Is it not true that one could add more users by simply adding names to /etc/passwd and more ttys with /etc/mknod and spawn more tty-listeners with lines in /etc/inittab? Or do they run the system in "single-user mode" (ie super user) mode all the time? That thought makes me cringe. I suspect that, in reality, the only restriction on the number of users is the license itself. That, however, is like buying a living-room couch which can physically seat four persons, but which comes with a "single-user license" which says that any number of people may sit, but only one at any given time. Does anyone have any hard info? Has anyone modified PC-IX to run multi-user? Bruce Walker {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!aesat!bmw