[l008com]

Is there a way to hook up two monitors, two keyboards, and two mice to once machine, and have each monitors show a login screen, and each kb and mouse belong to one screen, so basically two different users could use each kb, mouse and screen as if it was different computer, but all off of only one real computer?

[Anubis IV]

Sounds like you more or less want a dummy terminal. Though I don't know how to do it, I would guess that it is possible since OSX is based on UNIX.

[sandsl]

Mac OS X doesn't support multiple gui logins, so no you can't.

[Big Mac]

OS X supports multiple logins and Fast User Switching, but it does not as of yet support multiple concurrent logins. I don't think we'll see that feature on OS X client any time soon, even though it seems to be quite possible given the multiple login support we have right now. OS X Server does not even seem to provide this service, but it does provide something similar, NetBoot.

[TimmyDee51]

Can we ask why?

[Chuckit]

You can ask why, but I doubt you'll get any better an answer than "because Apple doesn't feel like putting that feature in."

If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say they don't want to cut into their hardware sales. But that's just speculation. All we know is that Apple is not including that feature.

[Mafia]

why would you want that? j/w

[Detrius]

Originally posted by Mafia:
why would you want that? j/w

It's more effective than two machines.

[larkost]

It would put Apple at a competitive advantage in computer labs... it certainly would kill the objection of "it's too expensive", but it does mean complicating the Quartz rendering model a lot, especially all of the parts dealing with AGP acceleration, and area that Apple is doing a lot of work in right now.

There are a few projects in the linux camp that are playing with this right now, and they are running into a few problems (primarily how you deal with multiple keyboards since keyboard handling is so deeply entrenched in everything). In three years I think it would be a very good idea for Apple. Right now I would say keep your coders working on other areas.

[ginoledesma]

In Linux, and with Unix in general, this has always been possible because of the way the X Server works. It is possible to do multiple, remote X logins on one machine. One of the more popular projects that does is the Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP). Microsoft also has their Terminal Services for Windows that can do the same.

The scenario that l008com describes is a little bit more difficult and different than the above, since there are multiple physical input devices connected to one physical computer. If I were to imagine this, it would be most likely one or more USB hubs, each having its own keyboard and mouse, and said hubs connected to the computer. The problem is, how will the OS know which input device to send to what 'user' or process?

I recall seeing some dedicated solutions for this on the PC. A google search yields the following products:
- Raritan PC-Share
- Ikonnet HiShare