Quoting Arnt Gulbrandsen (a...@gulbrandsen.priv.no): > Simon Walter writes: > >> Oh the insolence. Amazing. "You're holding it wrong" comes to >> mind. There is this guy named Lennart who might agree with you. > > Quite likely he might, he's not stupid after all. And I agree too: > Multiseat is unimportant, barely significant. The price of computers > has dropped enough that the ones with UIs are now personal devices.
Might be obvious, but just mentioning: 'Multiseat' (GNOME/system implementation of which proximately caused the systemd-logind omnishambles of several years ago) needs to be distinguished from multiuser. Unix has been inherently, by design, _multiuser_ since its beginning, and I for one would be quite sad if my Linux servers were suddenly 'personal devices': E.g., a Web / SMTPd / ftpd / sshd / rsyncd / NTPd server like the one in my garage suddenly failing to serve remote users would be a misfortune. I have to confess that I personally didn't understand how multiseat differs from multiuser on Linux until quite recently. Pro bono publico: It concerns simultaneous _local_ users. The Linux kernel[1] can, unaided, make _only one_ (local) virtual terminal active at a time. Sure, you can (e.g.) have one X11 server attached to /dev/tty7 and another to /dev/tty8, but it turns out that any time one's active, the other can't be -- even if two physical sets of console hardware are attached. So, multiseat is, in short, a system software elaboration to fix that. This missing kernel functionality isn't important to either you, Simon Walter, or me, but it's a genuine limitation nonetheless, and there's nothing wrong _per se_ with offering ways around that limitation. Note that systemd-consoled is not the only candidate: kmscon preceded it, albeit development is currently stalled. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kmscon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiseat_configuration#GNU.2FLinux also mentions several other current implementations. So, multiseat is _not_ a systemd invention, nor a systemd monopoly. Latter page mentions 'Multiseat setups are great for schools, libraries, and family computers.' Arguably true, _maybe_. Depends on the economics of additional consoles versus extra complete computers, I guess. I enjoyed using minicomputers during high school: A modern revival of that computing model using Linux might make money sense or might not, depending. Otherwise, I wouldn't say today that it'll necessarily be 'unimportant' in years to come. [1] Some other *ixes such as SunOS and Irix allegedly (per Wikipedia) had multiseat capability since early days, though I have no further details. _______________________________________________ Dng mailing list Dng@lists.dyne.org https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
