[LINK] RFI: Multi-User Capability on User Machines

[steve jenkin]

Roger Clarke wrote on 4/9/06 1:25 PM:
> I'm trying to phrase a short statement about when multi-user capability
> became available on PCs.
> 
> The draft says:
> 
> "Devices running Unix and its variant Linux have supported multiple
> users since long before the Internet became available.  Devices running
> Mac OSX (which is a version of Unix) have done so since early 2001. 
> Devices running the dominant MS Windows system have done so only since
> XXXX.".
> 
> Can anyone nail for me the date and version of Windows that delivered
> the feature on end-user machines?
> 
> Thanks!

Windows ain't Windows, Sol.

You talking Win-16 that came from MS-DOS or NT?
I don't believe it ever was fully 'multi-user' [see note below].
By Win-95 IIRC, definitely Win-98, it supported the notion of a "logged
in user" - but it didn't support a proper security subsystem or real
owner attributes in the FileSystem. certainly not ACL's.

Windows NT (New Technology) was always multi-user, though not concurrent
users.  That may have been there in NT 5.0 (Win 2000) - it had (remote)
Terminal Server native.
NT 5.1 (Win XP) introduced 'session switching'.
Will Vista be NT 5.2 or was that the now defunct "Longhorn" or "Server
2003"?

NT 3.51 (I think) was modified by Citrix to allow concurrent sessions -
or remote terminals.
NT 4.0 was pretty horrible and skipped by most people.

Multi-user is a security term saying that users have unique identities
and all processes have that attribute - and there are system enforced
restrictions based on the identity/security attributes of processes. Ie.
The OS has an uncircumventable Security SubSystem.

Concurrent user is a loose term meaning more than one person is "logged
on" to a system, whatever "logged on" means. Generally can initiate
programs and what their output in real-time.

Remember one of MSFT's great strategies from basing NT on Mach, so the
ability to create many parallel, separate (hosted?) environments on top
of the "micro-kernel".  One was DOS, one Win-32s, one the full Win-32 -
and POSIX. Didn't have networking, not sure about a graphical interface
(X11 not in POSIX?) and probably didn't share the same file system - but
it enabled "tick box compliance" for a bunch of Government contracts.
Everybody wins!

> 
> 
> Further Notes:
> 
> Microsoft Windows 2000 was released February 2000
> WINDOWS XP officially launched on October 25th. 2001
> 


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Steve Jenkin, Info Tech, Systems and Design Specialist.
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