We discussed this many times, last time here:
almost every enterprise application is moving to cloud web apps, password locking and disk encryption fix 99% of users needs.
I does not want store my private data on a cloud storage, only it is my own.
I hate the way like Amazon does, i buy a eBook and does not have it on my hdd, because on there cloud only. I buy this book and then i want it, i buy for it, not only as rented book.
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Hi, everyone,
Multiuser is really useful, there have been some discussions about it in the past.
I also see that the work PC should be separated from private use. A Multi PC for the whole family is actually sufficient, as not everyone can afford one. Especially since in the end this also protects the environment.
This is just an idea that has also been discussed.
It should be possible to separate the data. Perhaps through separate home directories that can be password protected.
All documents in the cloud, I don’t think much of that because I don’t know how the providers handle my data in the background. In addition, the servers produce a lot of CO2, I know that the server operators are already in the process of reducing the CO2 and power consumption and processing the waste heat as heating, etc.
Then a power failure at the server operator or a fire and all data could be gone.
Another view is that everything will soon be in the cloud and every object will be smart. So everything has a display and shows our data that we currently have active, we are identified by iris scan.
I think that would blow the discussion now, so I’ll stop there.
I think Haiku could use a multiuser system. One where you can create several home directories that are also limited in size and you as the admin only give the user the programs that are intended for him.
Especially when setting up the PC for children, it is important that you can control it easily (maybe also a time control).
Haiku is currently a single user system, which I can live with quite well at the moment.
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Cloud services don’t have to be delivered from Amazon, Apple, Dropbox, Google or Microsoft…
I hope that Haiku after R1 is out, can focus on WebDAV, CardDAV and CalDAV, so that we can use Nextcloud and Owncloud from our private servers (NAS) or from a providers with privacy focus. I use Nextcloud provided by Owncube…
Regarding multiuser support… For now I guess most of us are people with a special interest in Haiku and we are the only one in the family running this OS. Most likely next to Windows. And most of us are running it on a laptop with a not to spacey SSD. I hope for multiuser support, but I am not sure what should get the highest priority after R1 is released and what the few developers we have actually want to work with. Disk encryption should also come high up on the list.
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How longer we are waiting, so harder to be inplemented into the structure of the OS.
I don’t believe that haiku is not fundamentally rebuilt somewhere.
Until multi-user support added a solution can be a NAS or a home server depending on why multi-user support arise as requirement. Sometimes not really needed to buy a new computer but to reuse an already abandoned one that would still fit such use cases.
Documents/files can be stored on the net - next to you. Cloud still not needed if you do not trust or prefer such storage way.
Anyway a shared PC (desktop or laptop) can serve only one person at a time as generally there is one input/output set connected to it (maybe multi-monitor, but that’s all ). In case kids it can be source of arguing who an when to use it - this way better if they have own Personal Computer.
If question is storing a user profile and save from others to not bother it - it is rightful. Very painful if the familiar environment is lost or altered and we must re-create it.
I recently noticed some of the glass elevator stuff is on the website but not really linked from anywhere. When I get a chance I plan to fix some of that and maybe have a blog post bringing up some of the ideas, and pointing out that some have already been implemented.
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Actually Haiku already has most of the pieces in place. The kernel and file system supports the idea of multiple users just fine. The launch_daemon currently calls an auto_login program before starting a session for the user. That could be replaced with something which asks for a username and password. Some aspects of how the home directory works might need to be changed but probably not too much. Packages can currently be installed globally or per user. We may want to enable the concept of sudo both in the terminal and the GUI.
Having multiple people logged in at once and quickly switching between them is probably doable but may require more work.
All the above could be opt-in and if someone wants to run the system as it currently works that is fine.
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That’ll be great. I was involved with Glass Elevator stuff very early on and then somehow I lost track of it. I think it would be good to dig into some of the things that were discussed and envisioned for R2 and beyond.
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Multi-user accounts are useful when doing things like sharing files/using the computer as a file server with programs like SAMBA or FTP. Maybe as a internal Mail server or Web server. There are many other things like this.
It feels like a total abuse of ACLs or a giant hack. But whatever smell it got, it doesn’t smells like a “sane solution” to me.
I just want to put my two cents…
I think password access and lock screen is a must. I know it is a bit early, but a company that wants to achieve a quality certification must ensure computers are locked whenever the employee is not sit in there. I think this is ISO-27001 if I am not wrong. I would say disk encryption isn’t mandatory. Perhaps in a higher certification?
I have been working on a Linux distro for more than ten years and having multiple users on the same system complicates everything, no matter if we are talking about multiple user accounts or multiple user sessions. Having that on Haiku would be nice… but we would have to redesign (again) filesystem layout.
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Disk encryption may not be legally mandatory, but there is exactly one computer in one office that isn’t encrypted at my work.
It’s in a securely locked office with tightly limited physical access, it has a large label on it saying “Warning: not encrypted, do not remove from this location” to prevent a user thinking “Ah, I’ll take this to work from home!” and it’s scheduled for decommissioning in a couple of months.
Literally every other desktop or laptop is Bitlocker/Filevault/LUKS encrypted.
The only reason my home desktops aren’t is because the TPM craze happened right as I was switching to that, and I haven’t revisited it since. When I’ve replaced my car. 
My laptop is certainly encrypted and has been since… 2016?
The only “Won’t encrypt” computers at either my home or workplace are servers, for obvious reasons.
I will say this though, the UX of LUKS encryption annoys me. The more modern system where the keys are encrypted with the local user credentials and unlocked from the user log-in prompt is vastly preferable. But then to be fair, the reason I’m into the Haiku is because there has never been a good linux desktop OS. And I’m typing that on RHEL 8, which is one of the least-worst.
Edit: I work in education, for reference. This is not fort knox. And yet…
No one is opposed to having encrypted disks in Haiku, it is just a matter of someone doing the work. It has been mentioned a few times on this forum that Axel D made the launch_daemon to make it easier to support encrypted disks, but he got busy with life (like a lot of us) and was not able to totally finish that work.
Certainly when integrated disk encryption is implemented (and I’m sure it is indeed a “when”) it will be done in a nice way and can mimic modern systems. But realistically it is a post-R1 feature just because it probably would be pretty disruptive. We have to put some sort of stake in the sand to say “this is enough for R1”, especially after 20 years. It is already quite a bit of a joke how long Haiku has been going without the mythical R1 release.
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Agreed 100%… Aim for R1 this year - maybe include screen locking (and “login” on boot?) for single user to make it corporate-friendly (and “at home with kids or housemates” friendly). Polish up Web+ as far as possible, fix BMediakit media “saving” barfs, polish up any other disruptive issues, and give unto the world R1. Put multiuser, disk encryption etc into R1.5 
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That was a direct reply to Lt_Henry describing it as “Not mandatory”. I think it’s pretty inevitable it would be done, and clear that finishing R1 is the priority.
My hope for RT is multiuser support as separate home folders with possibilities to do separate sync to cloud services. For instance, I prefer Nextcloud, but my wife use Dropbox…
As an extension to this, I want my kids to have access to their own accounts with access to fewer apps.
But R1 first…
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