Past 2 years I got obsessed with Object Oriented Philosophy. Recently I google for Object Oriented OSs. In wikipedia I read “One attempt at creating a truly object-oriented operating system was the BeOS” and tried haiku VM. I fell in love with its interface and speed. But got disappointed with lack of /procfs. I believe processes are objects of operating system so they should have place in root of the file system. And also I found etc/passwd nearly empty, I hope unix like multiuser mode is under development. So I would like to ask
- Is’nt necessary to have /procfs?
- Is multiuser mode under development?
Thank you
Hi neckTwi,
welcome to Haiku :-D.
for your first point there was a mailing list discussion back in the days (2009)
http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.os.haiku.devel/6373
For the second point there where several discussion about multiuser:
The last one was this thread i guess it should contain enought starting informations 
https://www.haiku-os.org/community/forum/review_haiku_and_what_i_think_should_be_made_priority
There is not yet any need for multi user in Haiku. Hardware today is not that expensive than in past days. As you may see, there are no multi user cell phones (at least not known to me) as an example. When in far days Haiku might be used in professional environments, that point could change, but it would start as a minority request. For me it is most important, that a new alpha, or much more wanted a first official version would be released. For those, who want a unix clone built on top of Haiku, it should be better to stay e.g. with Linux. Please, leave the Haiku kids live their idea and philosophy unpollutedly.
Although Haiku might not need today a multi-user environment, its code should be multi-user aware so that when such multi-user environment is implemented, existing applications simply run.
There are some instances in which multi-user capability, at least the concept of permissions and owners of resources, would make sense:
-shared drive connected to the WiFi router via USB and BeFS formatted to make best use of the metadata aware Tracker. The USB connection on the WiFi router is getting more common - notably with the D-Link units. It is conceivable to have such shared drive for a single primary storage point of all media and/or media streamer in a household.
-shared printer hard-connected to the WiFi router via USB.
-LAN support for inter-machine communications or resource sharing, whether wired or wireless.
-in fact, any hardware and software services which involves identified/verified users.
Yes their idea and philosophy must b left unpolluted. May be they will find or already there it is in haiku a novel security for applications. I myself not an expert; just started digging computers 4 years back.
[quote=Paradoxon]Hi neckTwi,
welcome to Haiku :-D.
for your first point there was a mailing list discussion back in the days (2009)
http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.os.haiku.devel/6373
For the second point there where several discussion about multiuser:
The last one was this thread i guess it should contain enought starting informations
https://www.haiku-os.org/community/forum/review_haiku_and_what_i_think_should_be_made_priority[/quote]
I googled and searched haiku and didn’t find posts on this topic. So here they are… Thanks.
All Android cell phones rely entirely on the multi-user nature of the Linux kernel to provide privilege separation. This is how Android prevents an app that doesn’t have certain privileges (say, access to your contacts) from simply taking them from another app which does.
On slightly larger form factor devices (e.g. a tablet) modern versions of Android are usually configured to offer real multi-user, each person can have separate applications installed, they get separate contacts lists and so on, and they can switch from one person to another from the lock screen. This means you can lend your Nexus 7 to a child to watch amusing cartoons on Youtube or play a simple game, without them also getting access to your company email, browser bookmarks, Amazon one-click, and so on.
Some Android fans modify their phones to have multi-user like a tablet, it is a small change, the OS detects that multi-user is enabled and the relevant new settings appear. This can be useful if you like to lend the phone to people for demonstrations.
Or of course you can completely ignore the feature and it stays out of your way. Exactly as you’d expect and as it does on Windows, for example.
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