10.7 Lion allows multi-user remote computing

http://www.9to5mac.com/54102/10-7-lion-allows-multi-user-remote-computing?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+9To5Mac-MacAllDay+%289+to+5+Mac+-+Apple+Intelligence%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

by solipsist • 15 years ago

85 94 15 years ago

9to5mac.com

_b8r07• 15 years ago

It seems like Apple have discovered Terminal Services, or the basic networking functionality in X11.

Hopefully it'll be much shinier than X11 and less restrictive than Remote Desktop Protocol.

JonnieCache• 15 years ago

I imagine it uses Apple Remote Desktop, which is apple's own version of RDP. I don't know much about it but it works pretty damn well for me.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Apple_remote_...

nettdata6• 15 years ago

It's actually using a VNC based application, and uses the VNC protocol. I can "remote desktop" into my desktop using a simple VNC app on my iPad.

It seems that they've provided the option of creating a new VNC server/desktop process when connecting in, rather than just attaching to the existing and current desktop.

Very cool.

spitfire• 15 years ago

You know, you just gave me a brainwave. With server being integrated with client, Apple may be integrating ALL their server products - ARD included. Wouldn't that be cool.

Now we just need a nice 1U server again. Now what do they do with xsan and final cut server? I can see FCS being integrated with final cut studio. Maybe even in a distributed fashion (owww git for studios!) But I'm not sure what they could do with xsan.

Anyways, we shall see what happens, so far I'm liking the look of things.

ammmir• 15 years ago

it would be nice to get something equivalent to X11 forwarding that would work with all native Mac apps.

bad_user• 15 years ago

What do you mean? X11 obviously copied Apple's innovation.

EDIT: every time there's a talk about Android versus iOS there are people complaining about how Google stole interface elements from iOS. This in spite of the fact that no software is revolutionary and every idea is based on previous art; even the interface on iOS.

I am just making a joke here based on repeated evidence that even Apple (indeed an innovative software and hardware company) copies / gets inspiration from others and has done so repeatedly.

Sorry,

chc2• 15 years ago

Snark is frowned upon on Hacker News. It's generally low in signal and often drags the tone of the conversation down, so it's part of HN culture to downvote snarky comments.

trezor2• 15 years ago

Hopefully it'll be much shinier than X11 and less restrictive than Remote Desktop Protocol.

Out of curiosity... In what ways do you find the Remote Desktop Protocol restrictive? Does the protocol itself limit what can be done? From an end-user point of view it seems very flexible and powerful, while lightweigth and responsive.

vacri8• 15 years ago

I'm not an expert in remote protocols, but I also find it snappy. Perhaps the point that for non-server versions it locks out the local console while it's running is the restrictive part?

_b8r07• 15 years ago

Vacri hit the nail on the head - the locking out users on the desktop combined with the licensing restrictions on the server make it a tad too restrictive out of the box.

Having said that, when properly configured and licenced Terminal Services is freaking awesome.

voxcogitatio• 15 years ago

I'm glad to hear that they've catched up to the original UNIX. :)

rhizome• 15 years ago

It's a tough row to hoe, having NIH Syndrome.

yoda_sl• 15 years ago

I would rather say that it is more OS X returning back to its roots where NeXTStep/OpenStep use to have such capability when all the rendering was done with the PostScript built in server. These feature disappeared from OS X, so it is more like a welcome back with a user friendly UI. Back then you usually had to use some terminal command line to make ir happen.

prodigal_erik• 15 years ago

Amazing that this is the only comment so far that points out this wasn't even Not-Invented-Here Syndrome, because their own OS already had this feature (Display PostScript remoting) twenty years ago. At least until some architect marking their territory was allowed to wilfully break it and replace it with ... nothing.

guptaneil5• 15 years ago

This is going to be absolutely perfect for educational use. Imagine a university computer lab that lets you remotely login from home after the lab has closed to access all the expensive, specialized software the school has already purchased. I know my university was trying to set something like this up, but couldn't find any user-friendly way of doing this.

jonknee3• 15 years ago

I doubt there are a bunch of user accounts on a uni computer lab Mac, so this wouldn't be much different than regular screen sharing. It's also still a mess to choose which computer to try, doubly so if you're on an outside network.

ben1040• 15 years ago

I doubt there are a bunch of user accounts on a uni computer lab Mac

But they could always just throw a beefy machine in a closet and have it connect to the same network directory service that the lab machines grab their user accounts from.

My old university did the same thing, but did so nearly a decade ago with a Windows terminal server.

guptaneil5• 15 years ago

Each computer on campus is connected to a user directory, so students can login to any computer with their individual student account. I'm assuming that Lion's multiple login feature will work with networked accounts.

akronim• 15 years ago

Mac OS X Server had (has?) decent support for proper accounts, with the client machines essentially just diskless terminals that boot from the server, and with all accounts on the server - called netboot. So not like screen sharing at all. This worked pretty well in a lab setup, but didn't support remote logins - this sounds much better.

code_duck3• 15 years ago

So, imagine a university computer lab that installed SSH and VNC?

guptaneil5• 15 years ago

Except only one user can control the computer at a time with VNC. The functionality described here means 20 students could use the same computer in theory.

jimbokun3• 15 years ago

Imagine explaining how to set this up and run it to an entire incoming class of freshmen?

Much of OS X's value comes from taking Unixy technologies and making them much easier to use.

icegreentea• 15 years ago

RDP on windows. If they can figure out how to use expensive specialized software, they can figure out Windows Remote Desktop.

(My university does this... pretty much so engineering students can use matlab at home... badly winces)

emehrkay• 15 years ago

My job wants to use a third party product to do the exact same thing.

http://www.aquaconnect.net/mac-terminal-server.php

This is a great addition to the os. Imagine your house having one [desk|lap]top and a few tablets or phones. Hop on vnc on your docked tablet while someone is using the computer and you're as good as using the desktop. I see this as a move to push both os x and the i[pad|phone] as viable business devices.

This is possible with windows right? I vaguely remember using remote desktop a few jobs ago, but I dont remember if it was one account logged in at a time.

seabee• 15 years ago

The server versions of Windows allow that, it's called Remote Desktop Services (or Terminal Services pre-2008). Way better than using VNC, probably because it hooks all the window control drawing on the server and does it on the client instead, rather than sending over raw bitmaps for buttons/textboxes etc.

cschneid• 15 years ago

This is gonna make my Mac Pro way cooler as a central computing "mainframe" for my house...

jpr• 15 years ago

Is it just me or are 99% of tech "news" and "innovation" just reinvention of stuff already found in UNIX, Lisp etc. decades ago?

nkassis• 15 years ago

It's not just you. Every new thing that's any good is usually a retake on something already though about in the early computer times. But some of the implementation back then were crude. With the reinvention there is usually a rethinking and polishing.

ugh• 15 years ago

No need for the quotation marks. It’s news because you can’t do it with out-of-the-box OS X right now. It’s not innovation (the UI might be, I don’t know) but the article doesn’t claim it is.

Technology, however beautiful, often doesn’t matter if many people are unable to use it. It’s news when said technology might become more accessible in the future.

_b8r07• 15 years ago

It's not new. The way I see it is as in the film industry, it's a reboot. It's shinier, it may lack the depth and revelation of the original, but what it lacks in that area it makes up for in special effects and ease of consumption.

Consider Sendmail vs Exim, or Tron vs Tron:Legacy.

Both are essentially the same thing, but one is infinitely easier on the eye.

noonespecial• 15 years ago

It more or less all started with Doug Engelbart giving the "mother of all Demos" in 1968. It's all been catch-up since that event.

gvb• 15 years ago

It's not just you, Henry Spencer reportedly said it (first?) in 1987.

"Those who don't understand UNIX are condemned to reinvent it, poorly."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy#Quotes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Spencer#cite_note-2

thwarted• 15 years ago

He was just paraphrasing the bible:

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." -- Ecclesiastes 1:9

kaffeinecoma• 15 years ago

I'd like to see a remote login implementation for OSX that allows you to login remotely, and also adjusts the screen size to match that of the actual physical device you're on.

The existing implementation of screen sharing is frustrating for me to use because I'm often remoting in from a 15" Macbook to a Macpro tower with two heads @ 1920x1200 each. So the options are scale to 1) down the display (slow, fuzzy) or 2) scroll all over the place.

An ideal solution would be to let me log into a virtual display that matches the size of my physical remote terminal. In other words, make the server think it has a head the same size as the client.

pnathan• 15 years ago

Er, ssh?

I don't see what the big deal is. I've been able to remotely ssh into my mac for years.

jasonlotito4• 15 years ago

now imagine this at the gui level. imagine being on your mac, pick up your ipad, move to the next room, and swipe and have access to the same apps currently running. jut look at what apples been putting out the last few years. look at lions big features. full screen mode doesnt sound impressive. but that would make those apps much easier to use on the ipad.

im nut saying this is all new stuff, rather, its going to be packaged by apple, and that is going to mean something.

jasonlotito4• 15 years ago

I just want to apologize for the awful spelling and punctuation. It was written on an iPad.

"im nut saying..." >_<

pak• 15 years ago

If you want to do this right now, check out Screens for iPad.

tjarratt• 15 years ago

The way I like to think of this feature is as a throwback to the days of "dumb" terminals that would connect to a server where you stored your files, account info, etc.

"Back to Unix".

jacques_chester• 15 years ago

Why not? With HTTP we went back to the future vis-a-vis 3270.

jasonlotito4• 15 years ago

a lot of the comments are fairly shortsighted. i called this some time ago, and it makes sense. consider how mobile our live are right now. consider the wireless nature of everything. imagine having your computer be situated out of sigh, and your screen is mobile. your ipad and iphone connect to the same central hub. the computer becomes an appliance at home. just look at lion and the elements of ios its pulling in. now imagine apple making it easy to do all of this.

airdrop, mobileme, app store, all of this are elements to a grand vision.

thefonz• 15 years ago

yes, and especially with rumors that iPhone 5 having NFC technology. Imagine being able to walk up to any mac and just swipe your iPhone and all your settings, bookmarks, etc. will just transfer over and you will be able to use it, just like you were infront of you mac at home.

tambourine_man• 15 years ago

If I understood it correctly, this has been possible for years in OSX. You just need to be “fast user switched out” instead of logged out: - Log in with user A - Fast User Switch to user B - Log in to user A with VNC. It works just fine.

wangweij• 15 years ago

This is nothing special. Lion says it would include a server version of Mac OS X, and this is just a very basic function for any server OS. Although I haven't played with OS X server before, I'm quite sure this feature has been there for some time.

10.7 Lion allows multi-user remote computing

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