| News | Features | Interviews |
| Blog | Contact | Editorials |
| Android 4.1 has rudimentary multiuser support |
| By Thom Holwerda on 2012-08-04 00:54:30 |
| This tweet from Tom Warren made me smile. So, it's 2012 and tablets are finally able to do what the Amiga did in 1985. Seems like a bit of a stretch to be excited about that, right? Sure, until I caught myself getting excited - only a bit, but still - by this piece of news. Update: removed me being an annoyed child. |
|
| Random idea |
| By CajunArson on 2012-08-04 02:37:01 |
|
So for multi-user operating systems you choose... Amiga? Really? You make it seem like those dudes in 1969 that came up with UNIX used the Delorean (before it was built) to jump forward in time to 1985 to rip off Amiga... oh and Multics, which was already multi-user and over-the-hill when Unix copied some of its parts, must have had a *second* Delorean to go forward in time to 1969 to rip off Unix's copy of the ripped off Amiga multi-user support! Wow.. that's a lot of Deloreans! Oh.. P.S. --> In addition to me questioning your dubious references... your reference to Amiga is also factually inaccurate since Amiga in 1985 did *not* support multiple users (in fact, much much newer versions of Amiga still don't support multiple users). Don't believe me? Here's a quote from an article detailing the Fast File system that was not even available in the earlier versions of Amiga: "There are many bright design ideas making the AmigaOS a very special thing, but the file system was not exactly part of it. It is prone to invalidation, holds redundant data, and its directory structure is comparatively slow to traverse. It also lacks any concept of multi-user environments." See: http://wiki.osdev.org/FFS_%2... If your filesystem doesn't support multi-user access control, then you don't have a multi-user OS, even if there is a stupid login screen for multiple users (which there wasn't BTW). You seem to have confused *multi-tasking* with *multi-user*. While Amiga did have multi-tasking, that ain't the same thing as a multi-user environment. Oh, and multi-tasking wasn't all that unique since real Unix flavours had already gotten pre-emptive multi-tasking by 1985 anyway. If you are going to pine for the fjords, why not whine about SkyOS or HURD or some other dead OS that was *really* out there. Amiga was a corporate sellout compared to those guys. Edited 2012-08-04 02:43 UTC |
 - Score: 6 |
| Um. But it did... |
| By Jesuspower on 2012-08-04 02:47:13 |
|
IOS, android, webOS, all had 'rudimentary' multi user support. Only the OS itself, but not the GUI. Still, it had it. |
| - Score: 1 |
| Windows 8 |
| By Nelson on 2012-08-04 02:53:18 |
| Windows 8 probably right now has the best support for multiuser of the tablet OSes. |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE: Random idea |
| By Yoko_T on 2012-08-04 03:01:30 |
|
> So for multi-user operating systems you choose... Amiga? Really? You make it seem like those dudes in 1969 that came up with UNIX used the Delorean (before it was built) to jump forward in time to 1985 to rip off Amiga... oh and Multics, which was already multi-user and over-the-hill when Unix copied some of its parts, must have had a *second* Delorean to go forward in time to 1969 to rip off Unix's copy of the ripped off Amiga multi-user support! Wow.. that's a lot of Deloreans! Oh.. P.S. --> In addition to me questioning your dubious references... your reference to Amiga is also factually inaccurate since Amiga in 1985 did *not* support multiple users (in fact, much much newer versions of Amiga still don't support multiple users). Don't believe me? Here's a quote from an article detailing the Fast File system that was not even available in the earlier versions of Amiga: "There are many bright design ideas making the AmigaOS a very special thing, but the file system was not exactly part of it. It is prone to invalidation, holds redundant data, and its directory structure is comparatively slow to traverse. It also lacks any concept of multi-user environments." See: http://wiki.osdev.org/FFS_%2... If your filesystem doesn't support multi-user access control, then you don't have a multi-user OS, even if there is a stupid login screen for multiple users (which there wasn't BTW). You seem to have confused *multi-tasking* with *multi-user*. While Amiga did have multi-tasking, that ain't the same thing as a multi-user environment. Oh, and multi-tasking wasn't all that unique since real Unix flavours had already gotten pre-emptive multi-tasking by 1985 anyway. If you are going to pine for the fjords, why not whine about SkyOS or HURD or some other dead OS that was *really* out there. Amiga was a corporate sellout compared to those guys. The Amiga in 1985 also didn't have usb support,an integrated display,ect,ect,ect. It's really funny to see these Amiga and Beos fan boys running around acting like the Amiga and Be machines were the machines that most people wanted. They weren't. In fact they were far from it. In fact if I remember right the Commodore 64 outsold the Amiga during the Amiga's production run. |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE: Random idea |
| By Morgan on 2012-08-04 04:54:04 |
| Reading comprehension is your friend, you should really try harder. He wasn't talking about multi-user on the Amiga, he was talking about multi-tasking, an entirely different thing. This was a lead-in to the discussion of multi-user environments on Android and iOS. |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE[2]: Random idea |
| By CajunArson on 2012-08-04 05:13:25 |
|
My reading comprehension is just fine, but the writing quality of the posters on this site leaves much to be desired. Any rational person who reads the actual words posted in the article in this site would come to the conclusion that Thom is saying that ancient Amiga's had multi-user support that is just now being implemented for the first time ever in a mobile device... which is wrong but not the point. Thom also posted a link to some random guy's twitter account showing two windows on a Windows 8 tablet... So what.... 1. Some idiot "twittering" that he managed to use Windows doesn't mean that earlier mobile devices couldn't multitask since they have been doing it for decades (yes, much much longer than Android or iOS have been around, and yes iOS *does* support pre-emptive multitasking even if Apple prevents garden variety apps from taking full advantage of it), and 2. The useless Twitter post (aren't they all useless?) that is not part of the text of this story is a logical non-sequitur to the remainder of the story... it looks like you could use some work on reading comprehension and logical reasoning instead of me. P.S. --> To everyone still holding irrational nostalgia for Amiga, please direct me to all the multi-touch-enabled Amiga devices that had high-speed wireless data connectivity, OpenGL acclerated graphics, and support for 1080p H.264 playback. Amiga was a completely proprietary platform that only worked because Commodore exerted a level of control that makes Apple look like a hippy open-source startup. The Amiga platform was doomed from the start because it assumed that no improvements to hardware or software were physically possible after 1985, while the "primitive" PC was designed from day 1 with the understanding that technology would progress forward. Edited 2012-08-04 05:14 UTC |
| - Score: 4 |
| RE[3]: Random idea |
| By Thom_Holwerda on 2012-08-04 05:27:07 |
| Uhm, you failed utterly and completely at reading comprehension. My god, this must be me some sort of new record. |
| - Score: 0 |
| RE[3]: Random idea |
| By Morgan on 2012-08-04 05:27:44 |
|
So I'm irrational because I happened to grok the meaning right away and you didn't? You blame your lack of comprehension on the writing skills of a language arts major with a master's degree, who has been writing in English (his second language to my knowledge) for many years, and is far better at it than me and many other native English speakers. Face it, you misunderstood the article's segue and are scrambling to blame someone else for what, quite honestly, doesn't even matter. No one cares that you didn't catch the meaning right off, except perhaps you. But just in case you need it for future reference, here is a breakdown of the article flow in layman's terms, with my explanation in braces: This tweet from Tom Warren {regarding proper multitasking on a tablet} made me smile. So, it's 2012 and tablets are finally able to do what the Amiga did in 1985. {the Amiga could multitask in 1985} Seems like a bit of a stretch to be excited about that, right? Sure, until I caught myself getting excited - only a bit, but still - {here's the segue} by this piece of news. {about multi-user support on Android} I find it really sad that I had to do that, but I hope it helps you in your future attempts at reading. |
| - Score: 2 |
| Why? |
| By p13. on 2012-08-04 08:32:42 |
|
I'm sure some will say they absolutely need this. I just don't think it's very useful at all. A phone is inherently "single-user". You don't share a smartphone with many people. As for the whole "work/play" thing ... you don't need multi-user for that. Decently implemented profiles could take care of that. I just hope they don't start using ACLs on the filesystem (even if it is just POSIX ACLs) because i see many an opportunity for bugs and weird behavior. |
| - Score: 0 |
| RE[2]: Random idea |
| By stew on 2012-08-04 08:41:38 |
| True. As much as I loved my Amiga, the damn thing didn't have memory protection! At least I don't have to reboot my iPhone when Mobile Safari crashes. |
| - Score: 4 |
| News | Features | Interviews |
| Blog | Contact | Editorials |