4 ms·

> Even MacOS is still pretty bad at it. What problems do you see with multiple users on macOS? I don't use it intensively, but I've never noticed issues.

by JadeNB 7mo ago

kccqzy 7mo ago
Switching users while changing displays often results in an incorrect resolution. That’s such a basic thing: different users have different preferences for their displays and keyboards attached to the displays. Yet this doesn’t work reliably, as if during some moments the login window just doesn’t want to adjust resolutions.
silentOpen 7mo ago
As a very simple example, airdrop to macOS with multiple logged in users will frequently pop up the confirmation notification in the user account that is not active.
- zadikian 7mo ago
  Facetime too. I shared a laptop with my wife for like 2 years, so it was an ok experience, but we noticed those little things.
  - al_borland 7mo ago
    I wonder if this was a design choice, so if I’m on the computer and a call comes in for them, I can let them know and maybe hand it off? The alternative would be they would have to answer on their phone (assuming they have an iPhone, which may not always be the case), then use handoff to get it on the Mac.
    - zadikian 7mo ago
      Could be, but I've never wanted that. I just answer it on my iPhone or my desktop Mac.
booi 7mo ago
Perhaps I don't understand it but the encryption security model for MacOS/iPadOS/iOS currently doesn't allow multiple different encryption keys for each user. So any user can decrypt the whole drive and while it does enforce user permissions, the security model can't support true multiuser. I actually don't know if Windows or ChromeOS support this either but this is certainly something Linux can with LUKS et. al.
- hhhAndrew 7mo ago
  Yep on ChromeOS each user's home dir is separately encrypted with their own password.
benfrancom 7mo ago
USB security prompt disappears when multiple MacOS accounts signed in Still a problem for me, and has been for years, but I may be holding it wrong. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255929514?sortBy=rank https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255929514?sortBy=rank The solution posted in the discussion is not really secure.
- thecopy 7mo ago
  For me quitting preview, or maybe it is settings, resolves it.
lossyalgo 7mo ago
As soon as I added a 2nd user, my Samba share totally broke and days later I still don't have it working. It was fine for over a year and now I'm close to deleting my 2nd user just so I can access my Mac Mini across the network again.
dubya 7mo ago
Non-admins getting prompts for system and app upgrades is mildly annoying. The bigger one in a family setting is the clunky sharing. There's no good way to share a photo library or music library between users. The Unix version of making a folder shared by a group doesn't usually work for Apple apps.

> Even MacOS is still pretty bad at it. What problems do you see with multiple users on macOS? I don't use it intensively, but I've never noticed issues.

by JadeNB 7mo ago

> Even MacOS is still pretty bad at it. What problems do you see with multiple users on macOS? I don't use it intensively, but I've never noticed issues.

kccqzy 7mo ago

Switching users while changing displays often results in an incorrect resolution. That’s such a basic thing: different users have different preferences for their displays and keyboards attached to the displays. Yet this doesn’t work reliably, as if during some moments the login window just doesn’t want to adjust resolutions.

silentOpen 7mo ago

As a very simple example, airdrop to macOS with multiple logged in users will frequently pop up the confirmation notification in the user account that is not active.

zadikian 7mo ago
Facetime too. I shared a laptop with my wife for like 2 years, so it was an ok experience, but we noticed those little things.
- al_borland 7mo ago
  I wonder if this was a design choice, so if I’m on the computer and a call comes in for them, I can let them know and maybe hand it off? The alternative would be they would have to answer on their phone (assuming they have an iPhone, which may not always be the case), then use handoff to get it on the Mac.
  - zadikian 7mo ago
    Could be, but I've never wanted that. I just answer it on my iPhone or my desktop Mac.

booi 7mo ago

Perhaps I don't understand it but the encryption security model for MacOS/iPadOS/iOS currently doesn't allow multiple different encryption keys for each user. So any user can decrypt the whole drive and while it does enforce user permissions, the security model can't support true multiuser. I actually don't know if Windows or ChromeOS support this either but this is certainly something Linux can with LUKS et. al.

hhhAndrew 7mo ago
Yep on ChromeOS each user's home dir is separately encrypted with their own password.

benfrancom 7mo ago

USB security prompt disappears when multiple MacOS accounts signed in Still a problem for me, and has been for years, but I may be holding it wrong. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255929514?sortBy=rank https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255929514?sortBy=rank The solution posted in the discussion is not really secure.

thecopy 7mo ago
For me quitting preview, or maybe it is settings, resolves it.

lossyalgo 7mo ago

As soon as I added a 2nd user, my Samba share totally broke and days later I still don't have it working. It was fine for over a year and now I'm close to deleting my 2nd user just so I can access my Mac Mini across the network again.

dubya 7mo ago

Non-admins getting prompts for system and app upgrades is mildly annoying. The bigger one in a family setting is the clunky sharing. There's no good way to share a photo library or music library between users. The Unix version of making a folder shared by a group doesn't usually work for Apple apps.