2-user systems

[David Dawes]

In article <2391 at sixhub.UUCP> davidsen at sixhub.UUCP (bill davidsen) writes:
>In article <28370 at usc> kjh at pollux.usc.edu (Kenneth J. Hendrickson) writes:
>| What do you loose if you get a 2-user system?  How is it crippled?
>| Do you get root + 2 users?  Do you get only 2 simultaneous logins, or
>| only 2 users in /etc/passwd?  I would probably be the only user of such
>| a system, but the idea just scares me.  Is this paranoia reasonable?
>
>  Very! Most two user systems limit the number of user logins to two
>(wouldn't and reasonable implementation?), while SCO limits the gettys.
>So if you want to use the console and ethernet, and two serial modems,
>you can't, have a getty on all of them, even if you are only going to
>use max two at a time.
>
>  SCO says they're going to look at this, but I don't know of a
>committment to change it. Other vendors count all console logins as one,
>and allow one other.
>
>  For a personal system there's no problem, you can have a getty on a
>serial port for uucp or friends with any of the systems. And all the
>users in passwd you're filespace will hold.

For what its worth: On DEC's Ultrix with a 2 user license, a max of 2 users
may be logged in at a time.  These 2 users may however be logged in any
number of times (from ethernet, serial lines, console or wherever).
root is also able to login when two other users are logged in.  This to
me seems the most logical way of implementing a 2-user system.

David
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 David Dawes (dawes at suphys.physics.su.oz.au) DoD#210   | Phone: +612 692 2639
 School of Physics, University of Sydney, Australia    | Fax:   +612 660 2903
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