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Chapter 3
CHAPTER 3
Login Managers
Hacks #16–21
Personal computers are no longer as personal as they used to be. You might
have a family computer, for example, and each member of the family uses
the computer with his own personal account. In this case, at one time or
another you will encounter this conversation, or something like it: “I need to
use the computer.” “But I’m right in the middle of typing my school report.”
“This can’t wait, you need to log off and let me use it now!”
If you are ever caught in a situation in which you have to relinquish control
of your computer to another person, it seems both logical and natural that
you should close all your applications and log out before allowing the other
person to access the computer. That isn’t necessary with Linux. Linux is
truly multiuser. You can have two or more people logged in to the same
computer at the same time, even running separate graphical desktops at the
same time. You don’t have to close all your applications and log out. All you
have to do to relinquish control to another person is to lock your session (for
security purposes), and then let the next person start up his own session.
In some cases, desktop environments, such as KDE and GNOME, provide
you with a handy menu option that will let someone start another desktop
session. If your Linux distribution doesn’t provide you with that easy
method, don’t worry. The following hacks ...