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Using Linux you can connect multiple keyboards, monitors etc. and use one CPU with multiple users, each logged in to their own home environment.

See what I mean here: Linuxgazette

Is there any way to achieve the same on OS X?

Clarification: All viewers seem to understand this question as: remote logon, or remote X. This is NOT the question.

I hope the following diagram will clarify:

|-------|
|single |
|MAC OS |
|box    |
|-------|
  |_Monitor1__keyb1__Mouse1__user1
  |
  |
  |_Monitor2__keyb2__Mouse2__user2

Remark: It seems X11 is available on OS X. I haven't seen any practical examples yet. Remote X seems possible using X11. Not sure at all about multiseat capability with additional mouse and keyb..

Perhaps this may be 'a' way to go?

Erwin
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    Something like this? http://9to5mac.com/2011/02/27/10-7-lion-allows-multi-user-remote-computing/ – slhck Oct 28 '11 at 12:07
  • Of course, that's what UNIX was actually used for. – m0skit0 Oct 28 '11 at 12:15
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    @slhck Thanks, but I already found this article. This method uses remot logon, so in fact you still have 2 machines running, whereas the other method uses only 1 cpu/machine. – Erwin Oct 28 '11 at 12:28
  • @m0skit0 I'm aware of that too, but can you tell me how to do it? You should be having multiple X-servers if I'm not mistaken, and change your X-config. I'm familiar with this on Linux but not on Mac, hence my question.. – Erwin Oct 28 '11 at 12:29
  • I think it might have been possible in really really old versions or OS X's predecessors. Maybe here's something better suited? http://www.aquaconnect.net/mac-terminal-server.php – also see: Mac OS X multi-user thin client server (terminal server)? – slhck Oct 28 '11 at 12:45
  • An alternative method is to run a virtual machine full screen and connect a pair of USB keyboard and mouse to the VM. The VM can run whatever OS you want or as a thin client to connect back to the host via VNC. – billc.cn Nov 04 '11 at 23:13

1 Answers1

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Mac doesn't use X11 for its GUI so this setup is not possible with a mac. You could try installing linux on your mac and trying this out but by the looks of the setup it would have to be a mac pro due to the multiple graphics cards.

JD Guzman
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