Linux Fundamentals, 2nd Edition

User Management

The Linux operating system was designed to be a multi-user operating system. That means it can support multiple users logged into the system at the same time, all doing different things. The problem with having multiple users though is that you need to keep track of who’s doing what and who’s allowed to do what!

This is where user accounts come into play. Linux uses user accounts to uniquely identify individual users and control their access to the devices, files, and folders on the system. Linux also uses the user accounts as identifiers when logging activity on the system. That way you can track just who deleted that important file! As the system administrator, you can control what all of the Linux users are allowed to do and ...