Privacy

[Stuart D. Gathman]

On Thu, 18 Mar 2004, Linas Vepstas wrote:

> On Wed, Mar 17, 2004 at 07:01:06PM +0100, Lars Hallberg was heard to remark:
> > Linas Vepstas wrote:
> > 
> > I must say I don't realy get the problem with login/logout.
> 
> Its stunningly slow.  And its impractical.  If my wife wants to
> look at a web page real quick while I go to the bathroom, 
> login/logout isn't effective.  If music is playing, a logout 
> would stop the music.  

At my house, we have two X servers running on the console.  If you
go to the bathroom, just lock your screen and someone else can use 
another virtual console (CTL-ALT-Fn).  Running more is just a matter of
memory.

Furthermore, we run LTSP, and have three additional X terminals on the
network (recycled old PCs).  With 6 people in the family, they all get used.
This is all on a bottom of the line Dell server ($400).

I think that the most important thing for Gnome is to fix nagging
problems with multiple X servers.  E.g. esd hanging, lock session not
working from non-console X servers.  With any number of sessions available
on the same or separate physical terminals, it covers most bases.

The only reason for more complex mechanisms is if you want to cut and paste
between user domains.  E.g. popping up gnucash under another user id to get
a figure to paste into gaim.  This could be accomplished with a 
simple "Run as another user" option when right clicking on menu items
in Gnome.  (Maybe Gnome already has this.  I'm still at 2.2 at home and
1.4 at the office.)

-- 
			Stuart D. Gathman <stuart at bmsi.com>
      Business Management Systems Inc.  Phone: 703 591-0911 Fax: 703 591-6154
      "Very few of our customers are going to have a pure Unix
      or pure Windows environment." - Dennis Oldroyd, Microsoft Corporation