Re: [9fans] newbie question

["Russ Cox" <rsc@swtch.com>]

> > Hummm I meant...  for each user.  For instance, how can more than a user
> > share a single plan9 machine (using time-slicing :) in a way a user
> > can not bother others?

Depends on what you mean.  If you want multiple people
logged into the same machine, with all but one of them
connecting over the network, then yes you can do that.
You need to set up the machine as a standalone
cpu/auth/terminal.  There are instructions in the wiki.

If you want people to be able to log in and log out of the
machine one at a time in person, then no, there's no support
for that.  There have been discussions about this in the
past, and in fact someone did build something to do this
for the previous authentication model.  It would require
some kernel hacking.

> If you have access to the hardware, asking for a password is
> naive at best, and deceiving at worst.

This isn't completely true.  Public computer labs manage
to work well enough in many places.

> It is possible that some form of full disk encryption could help, but
> no other 'mainstream' OSes do that AFAIK.

OS X does.

Russ