User Switchin on the Fly (without quitting app)??

S

schehan

Registered
Needless to say, the subject header said it all.

But here's what I want.

I want my computer to handle two different log in screens at the same time. So I can browse the 'net, do my e-mail. . and so forth, but when my buddy wants to look up his stuff online via his own screen, I do not want to quit all my apps, I want to leave my AIM up and running. . downloading still "downloading". . and stuff. .but just simply switching over to his screen. . and he can have his application up and running, downloading . . .whatever. . . and when I want to go back and check my stuff, he doesn't want to quit his application. .

any way to do that? . .I don't want to restart my application , and go back and restart my aim and etc. . .

I'm not talking about automatic "application starter". . . but I want the application to still be running. . simply inaccessible to me. . and only to him when he logs on. . I hope this made sense.

two log ins at the same time. . on the switch fly. . both sides have their own applications running. . all the time.

Thanks

Bill
 
I know exactly what you you want but the bad news is its impossible (as far as I know). OS X will only allow one user to be logged in a time and when you log-out all of your open applications are quit.

Annoyingly enough apparently Windows XP can do just what you're asking (although I've never actually tried it).
 
I'm a new Mac convert (from the Windows AND UNIX world) and I must say that I was very surprised by two things our "most advanced operating system on the planet" can't do (especially considering it's UNIX based):

1. Allow multiple-user logins (EVERY UNIX system I've ever used can do this and now even Windows XP does it, and does it well!)

2. Allow multiple-desktops (so that when I'm logged in as the current user, I can click a button and have a whole new desktop to configure and then with another click switch back to the current one--that way I don't have to even close windows down--I would have one desktop for development, one for Internet apps, one for publishing, etc. and never have to close a window).

These should both definately be added to OS X. Unless they are, it's hard to go along with the whole "most advanced" concept--these are simple features in other OS's.

Kent!
 
a big wish i have for osx is faster logon/logout and the multi desktop, i hate having to restart all my stuf just because my mom wants to check her email!!! arrg and the log out long on takes so much longer then winxp it drives me nutz. 10.2 fix this please!
 
I don't know if this is exactly what you want, in fact it probably isn't, but here goes anyway.

The example I came across is when I added my sister as a user (non-admin) so she could watch DVDs and not read my files. While she was loged in I wanted to use a Terminal program, ispell, which was inaccessible under her name. In the Terminal I wrote in 'su (myshortloginname) RETURN' and entered my password when asked - this allowed me to access the program. Although I didn't see if I could access my files from the Terminal I presume I could. I also presume I could then access several other applications I have installed in Darwin/UNIX vain including text-based browser and the pine mail program. Maybe if you experiment and do some fiddling you may be able to access your files via Mail etc. using this method. I'm not to up on user privileges and changing them but it might work albeit with some fiddlin' required everytime you want to do it.

Experiment and see if it works, I will be since this isn't something I had thought of before but will probably want to do in the future.

rute.sourceforge.net/rute.pdf is a good tutorial for Terminal commands and does explain some of the basics about user pivileges.
 
I have a couple of other wishes too. I like the new alt-tab combo in XP (if you have powertoys) you can vew what the program looks like in a high res window. Also I like the Multiple desktop feature. I had been using Linux (what a joke. OSX will take over Unix and Linux world, I don't think it will do much to the windows world.) and I always loved the multi desktop in KDE, but now I have it in XP.:D
 
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