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Multi-Users and Panther
Not quite virtual desktops
By: David K. Every
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October 20,2003
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 ne of the new features of Panther is better Multi-User support, and rapid user switching (while leaving other users logged in). While it is not a bad feature, I think it misses on a few levels. Now Apple did a decent job to be sure. It is quicker, it has reasonable security, and the transition animation between users (borrowed from a much older Mac product called Switcher, ala Keynote) is very clean and effective to convey what is happening. So as a feature on its own, it is pretty good. But I think it misses what many more users would want; especially myself.
Note: This article and information is more for the Power Users and nerds. Newbies hardly know, or want to know about things like this.
The most important thing is making a computer useful for users. To do that effectively, you need to start with what most users are trying to do, and then go from there. I get the feeling that the new Apple looks at it the other way around; what does the computer or OS do effectively, and thus what would be the easiest features to add. Enter Fast-User switching. UNIX is a multi-user operating system. Yet, I suspect the majority of the Macs sold, especially portables, are used by single users; or they are used in a lab environment where you don't want people having multiple local accounts or being able to switch that quickly between accounts or keep multiple things running. So there are only a few cases where this is a valuable feature. They implemented this because they could; but not necessarily because they should, or that it should be put as high of a priority as compared to other things.
What I've always felt is far more important is good single user support. OSX has taken some huge strides backwards in that arena. Some of them could not be avoided; by adding multi-user support and internal machine security, you have to add permissions and privileges and other things that make things more complex and confusing, and just frankly get in the way. And there are good ways to do it, or quick ways to do it; more often than not I feel that Apple took the easy way - UNIX has been doing multi-user security poorly for 30 years, so Apple did little to rethink the problem and just stuck with what they had. Don't get me wrong; the security protocols in UNIX are pretty decent from a security point of view and it is better than Windows; but the interface protocols, anachronistic directory structures, and so on, from a User Interface point of view just really stink. So I personally would have thought that either improving the way multi-user support works (fundamentally), or making the machine better for single users would have been better than just focusing on making multi-user mode easier to switch. I'll cut them a little slack because of dependencies and so on (sometimes you need to get one thing working before you can finish others); but I'm still left wondering if they are missing the point; meaning good single user interaction.
Still, I got and installed panther, with hopes that I could do things on Multi-User mode to make it more useful for my workflow (a single user); like what I really need is virtual desktops. I'd had the same hopes with OSX 10.0, 10.1, and 10.2 - and even tried similar things with OS 9. Panther works better than previous versions of OSX, and different than OS 9 (many ways better, some ways worse). But I did find that Panther's multi-user support is getting closer to being useful in a single user environment.
So let me explore what I've learned.
             
A common UNIX behavior, and demos of some other OS's, have something called Virtual Desktops. What they do is setup their machine to have basically multiple users, except you're the only user. Each user is actually a mode (context), that displays information for that mode, and then you can rapidly switch between modes (contexts), and leave off, and return, to exactly what you were doing.
With Panther, I setup multiple accounts:
- My normal account with general office productivity and writing stuff
- My development account with coding tools, debugging tools, browsers with sample sites or documentation
- My school work (I'm going to graduate school for my MBA) with all that material; on-line books, homework, projects, presentations, and so on.
- My PIM / Personal Information Management account with a couple email packages open at the same time, along with Address Book, iCal and other contact management centric tools.
- My secure account with the new encryption feature turned on, so that I can keep passwords and private stuff in a secure area without having to encrypt everything
Working this way allows me to have all the windows and Apps that I want/need open at the same time, and then to just shift modes, and return back; easy, clean, and usable. Since there are fewer open windows in each area, I find that I'm using Expose less than I would have; but that it works better since there's less clutter. So overall, despite the shortcomings, I am more productive.
Now for the bad news; the OS does not make it easy to setup or move things between accounts, and still has quite a few issues that get in the way of making it highly productive. Inlcuding just some of the following:
- Setup was a bit painful.
- The dinosaur permissions were in my way, a lot. I had to make everyone admin, and set everything to read/write to get around them. Not great security. In fact, really a bad idea security wise. Usability improved; but Apple often tries to fix persmissions with each new OS patch or release, which puts me at odds with Apple's dreaded installer.
- If you want to switch quickly, you need to shutoff passwords (set them to nothing) on those accounts (so that you can mode switch easier). Again, lousy security, and the OS doesn't sense that in all cases, so you get prompted with a dialog that requires to just hit return (no password) way too often. My data is pretty secure in the one encrypted partition that still has a password - but the rest are open to the world. Having a master password to get onto the machine, and then leaving the accounts open, would be much cleaner.
- The User system (which means preference system) in OS X is pretty brain-dead. It was just a UNIX two-dimensional folder domain/context scheme that was popular in the 60's. What this means is that you can't share preferences or settings between accounts; and no, using aliases/symbolic links won't work for many/most - I tried. If you want to keep dock things in common, or other stuff, you do a ton of file reconciliation; and some of them don't work well. So you enter a registration multiple times, set things up multiple times, then change something, and have to change it multiple times. A much better solution would have been to have ways of managing domains at multiple levels; meaning you got global or system preferences, group preferences, and user preferences. Each level being able to override the previous ones (if security allows it).
- This lack of a reasonable domain system clashes with other parts as well. Users are separate, which means clipboards are separate. There's no real shared folder and setting one up causes other issues; but you can copy directly into the /Users/{domain} folder. Still you find that moving things between accounts is less that cool, as it loves to put its barbaric ownership stuff on things to add unneeded complexity.
- All the accounts are running. While each account is fairly zippy, there seems to be quite a bit of overhead for each one. OS X's scheduler isn't very dynamic, or not yet very good at changing priorities. As a result, having many account running is usable, but not exactly high-speed. So you have to sacrifice resources for productivity, and a turn a fast computer into a slower one. It doesn't need to be this way, but it will take time and energy (and motivation) to mature. For now, expect it to bog your system, use all your memory, waste your battery, and keep your fan running on high.
- Apple didn't offer any shortcuts to quickly switch between modes (users) as in keyboard shortcuts, scripting, etc., and I haven't yet figured out good work arounds. There's a menu, but you have to reach for the mouse to change modes, which slows anyone's workflow.
- There is no way to really save a desktop (with the apps that were running, and so on). So you can't really quit a user, and then return later to where you were. You must instead keep that open forever, if you want to return to where you left off. Usable, but not always desirable.
- And so on...
I don't like the modelessness of the original Mac. But OS X seems to forces more modality on me; and the deeper folder hierarchy and lack of directory control means I spend far more time navigating. Modes can reduce that, if they could get them to work right.
  
The point is not that Apple is dumb, or that it isn't usable as either a multi-user OS, or as a single user OS with modes.
As a multi-user OS it isn't too bad at all (I prefer it to Windows), but think it has lots of room for improvement. I still question priorities; rather than spending time on fast user switching, I'd like better remote access and administration functions (that aren't only-tied to Server versions), FTP that actually works reliably, and stuff like that.
As a single user OS it is still far more painful than Mac OS 9 (or before) ever was. And hasn't incorporated most of the exciting real UI changes that Apple was demo'ing a decade ago with Copland. There are many areas where it works fine, and I like some of the additions. Panther's new favorites folder at the top level is a nice addition, and hides a lot of the deep-hierarchy ugliness. And I prefer Panther to Windows, which is really the only other choice. But it is far from perfect, or even from what I felt I used to have. Instead of fixing things that are important, they're wasting time changing the default shell, changing from a lousy low-contrast transparent non-active window interface to a lousy low-contrast opaque active window interface, and so on. Or they are focusing on how to make multi-user mode switching faster, instead of giving me things that make me more productive (like virtual desktops).
Trying to use multiple users as virtual desktops is not polished by any sense of the word, and it will take time to mature; and I find I must adapt to the computer, instead of the computer adapting to me. I can do this; I'm a geek. But I wouldn't want to explain it to non-geeks. Which demonstrates that this isn't quite the computer "for the rest of us" that it once was; unless "the rest of us" are UNIX admins or nerds that don't mind tinkering. But that's the problem, with OS X I constantly find I'm trying to find new extensions, or new workflows to help me gain back some lost productivity; or until it just feels right. This way helps a little (and could actually be superior to old MacOS); but it is far from "there" yet.
Hopefully, the next version of OSX will have a real virtual desktop solution, or at least work-arounds for some of these issues. Many of them are not that difficult to solve; some are more so. But I do sort of question the priorities and bias. Superficial things that affect few people get tons of time and energy, and then the fundamental things that could affect many more people get ignored or delayed. The obvious things that needed to be fixed take many tries and are happening very slowly; while nerdy things that are all spiff and sizzle for geeks, get a ton more focus. Everything feels like a promise that "the next version will be really useful". Geeze, if I wanted that, there's always Windows. Of course, at least I have Panther now, and would have a year or more to wait for Longhorn (Apple could fix their problems long before Longhorn gets to its cattle drive); so I can't get too whiney. But I still keep getting a few things fixed here and there, and thinking, "almost", "getting closer", and "soon". In a few more versions it will be really cool; but I'm tired of waiting. It is usable today, but all too often in my way and not yet "cool". I just want my priorities to be Apple's, and to stop having to adapt to theirs.
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