“In Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, the built-in Screen Sharing feature, updated from 1.1.1 to version 1.3, now allows remote users to log into a separate user account from the one that is currently logged in,” AppleInsider reports. “That means that while one user is logged into a machine, a second user can login to the same machine remotely, seeing their own desktop and user environment.”
“Previously, any users who attempted screen sharing with another system could only see a mirror of what was currently on the screen, and would ‘fight’ for mouse and keyboard control of the remote system with that locally logged in user,” AppleInsider reports. “Now, any user with the credentials to perform screen sharing can log into a Lion system independently of another user who may already be logged in, and continue to work in a separate graphical session parallel to the logged in user.”
AppleInsider reports, “After logging in behind a local user on a Lion machine, the remote session depicted both users as being logged in from the Fast User Switching menu.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Attribution: GigaOM. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Arline M.” for the heads up.]
That is way cool!!!
And attempting to switch to the second user via fast user switching currently results in a kernel panic. So much for the GM rumor, eh?
Nice, used it on Solaris and was always wondering when Apple will add that to OS X.
I smell iPad app!! Lion will become the home server, and iPads will be the thin clients.
A graphical login may not even be needed, but afp volume logins may suffice. If the iDisk functionality were to be incorporated into iOS and the functionality were further extended to Mac network disks (e.g., the ability to mount your home directory), then iOS would acquire real save dialogs for its apps.
I have been looking forward to a solid iteration of screen sharing since it was introduced. I have a few friends who I have converted from the dark side that occasionally need help with OS related tasks. To be able to log in and control their screens would be a huge help. I have had luck with it over a local network, but it has never really worked well for me remotely.
I routinely help my mom with Mac questions. We iChat and I share her screen via that. Never had a problem with it. I can control her MacBook and she can watch and learn while we continue to talk via audio chat.
I use screen sharing all the time and have very little trouble with it over the internet. You both have to have a pretty good internet speed to make it work or you will disconnect all the time. If either of you have a slower connection speed try to screen share in off peak times or a faster service. I do not thing 10.7 will help you your internet is slow.
Thanks for the feedback.
All connections are high speed, so I don’t think that is the issue. It tends to be a connection problem, which I chalk up as possible firewall issues.
I am hoping that any revisions to Screen Sharing will auto-open ports and circumvent firewall issues.
Teamviewer is another option, free for personal use.
That’s a Mac console. You could have two workers share a box. Would it work for more than two accounts?
Now all Apple needs to do is allow “remote” screen sharing from across the room, using nothing more than a monitor and keyboard/mouse plugged into the serving Mac. You know, kinda like they used to do in the 70’s with mainframes. Apple could compensate for the loss of revenue from that 2nd Mac that isn’t there by offering the capability to the OS at some additional fee. I know I’d spring for it. Rather than have my Mac Pro here and my wife’s iMac over there we would both use the same piece of hardware right here, her in her account and me in mine.
Or… Your wife using the iMac, and you logged in using your iPad, without the need of another keyboard/screen/mouse. I’m not pretty sure, but I think there are already solutions like you mention without the need of Mac OSX Lion.
Isn’t this just Terminal Services?
Kinda, at least functionally speaking its about the same, but its based on VNC which has been around a long time in the unix world. Well heck you can run VMC on Windows too but with term services and remote desktop there isn’t much need.
With Terminal Services, unless the windows box is a server, only one user at a time can be logged in. We routinely steal sessions away from each other on one of the non-server box here at the office. Dual user log in is pretty much a server-level feature.
True – but you can get round it with third-party stuff.
ThinSoft have multiple RDP solutions that allow multiple TS sessions on client-class systems.
currently, if you are running WIndows under parallels on your Mac, and windows is set up for LogMeIn access, a user on a remote machine can log in to windows under parallels and use it while someone else is using the Mac OS. Discovered this yesterday.
Have been doing this for years in Mac OS X Tiger – one good setup is Vine Server on the Mac, Mocha VNC on iPod touch and Fast User Switching enabled – as long as the VNC connection has been setup first, when another user logs in on the Mac, the VNC connection can be resumed without the second user’s session being disturbed, allowing the two users indeoendant access to the same Mac