[Riddler]

Hi,

After biting the bullet and moving from a PowerMac to PowerBook full time I will shortly be handing my G4 desktop over to my Dad to replace the aging G3 they use at the moment.

I'm about to put a fresh install of Panther on the G4 and am wondering if I should set-up seperate users for both my Pa and sister. Have a few questions:

1. Are there any disadvantages to running Multiple Users? Any problems?

2. If I install an app, say Office 2004, under one user will it still be accessible by the other user?

3. My sister wants me to leave my iTunes music library on the G4, it's on a seperate partition so I can leave it there quite easily, will both users be able to access the same music library? (Won't all the permissions on the files still be set to my user name?)

To be honest I'm slighty confused as to the way permissions work when transferring files from one MacOS X user to another.

Can't believe I'm handing over my beloved Dualie to my Pa, it's a monster - DP533, 200Gb HD space, 1.5Gb RAM, GF3 - but I can't leave him stuck in OS9 on my old Beige G3!

[typoon]

Originally posted by Riddler:
Hi,

After biting the bullet and moving from a PowerMac to PowerBook full time I will shortly be handing my G4 desktop over to my Dad to replace the aging G3 they use at the moment.

I'm about to put a fresh install of Panther on the G4 and am wondering if I should set-up seperate users for both my Pa and sister. Have a few questions:

1. Are there any disadvantages to running Multiple Users? Any problems?

2. If I install an app, say Office 2004, under one user will it still be accessible by the other user?

3. My sister wants me to leave my iTunes music library on the G4, it's on a seperate partition so I can leave it there quite easily, will both users be able to access the same music library? (Won't all the permissions on the files still be set to my user name?)

To be honest I'm slighty confused as to the way permissions work when transferring files from one MacOS X user to another.

Can't believe I'm handing over my beloved Dualie to my Pa, it's a monster - DP533, 200Gb HD space, 1.5Gb RAM, GF3 - but I can't leave him stuck in OS9 on my old Beige G3!

To answer them in Order

1. There are no Disadvantages to runing multiple users. No Problems either.

2. If you install Office 2004 for one user only that user can access it. I would just install it into the maine Applications folder then everyone can use it.

3. They should all be able to access the other partition and use the same library. Just point both of there iTunes folders to the same folder. It SHOULD work. I believe iTunes will/should pickup the library on the other partition.

[Riddler]

I figured it was probably that simple, ta

[Mithras]

You can always check the 'Ignore Permissions On This Volume' box (in Get Info) to ensure no permissions problems in sharing the iTunes library.

[Catfish_Man]

I've run into a few multi-user problems. For example: my parents both expect to be able to access files the other one created (pictures in iPhoto, shared tax records, etc...), but don't really understand permissions, so I've got them on the same user. I *could* put their files on another partition and set it to ignore permissions, but unless I put the home folder there as well, it wouldn't work for items on the desktop or in documents. So it's possible to work out, but a bit of a pain (I didn't think it was worth the trouble).

[hudson1]

In my mind there are only two good reasons for multiple users in the same family: Privacy and customization.

Most spouses don't need or want the privacy aspect. Of course, you can still set up multiple e-mail account under the same user anyway. As for customization, I think it's usually children that can benefit from this. Some might want their own psychedelic desktop or screen saver, younger kids might benefit from restricted internet access, or parents might want to avoid having their Documents inadvertently hosed by a six-year-old or something like that.

There are disadvantages in going with mulit-users especially the extra steps needed to share libraries. iPhoto is perhaps the most notorious example. There have been several threads here and elsewhere on how to share the same iPhoto library and the general consensus is that you really can't do it with full reliability and transparency without putting the iPhoto library on a separate partition (which will automatically get around all of the privileges hassles).

[chris v]

Separate bookmarks, separate ichat buddy lists and separate email accounts are also good reasons for individual accounts.

As far as the iTunes thing goes, so long as you put the mp3s on another partition, they should each be able to build their own playlists from them. Just put them in a floder labelled mp3, then they can just drop the folder on their itunes app window, and sort/delete however they like. Just turn off the "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" chexkbox on both accounts, so they don't duplicate the mp3s in their home folders.

CV