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Multi-user is a term that defines an operating system
Operating system

An operating system is an interface between hardware and applications; it is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the limited resources of the computer....
 or application software
Application software

Application software is any tool that functions and is operated by means of a computer, with the purpose of supporting or improving the software user 's work....
 that allows concurrent access by multiple user
User (computing)

In computing, a user is a person who uses a computer or Internet service. A user may have a user account that identifies the user by a username , screenname , or "handle", which is derived from the identical Citizen's Band radio term....
s of a computer
Computer

A computer is a machine that manipulates Data according to a list of Code .The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century , although the computer concept and various machines similar to computers existed earlier....
. Time-sharing
Time-sharing

Time-sharing refers to sharing a computing resource among many users by Computer multitasking. Its introduction in the 1960s, and emergence as the prominent model of computing in the 1970s, represents a major historical shift in the history of computing....
 systems are multi-user systems. Most batch processing
Batch processing

Batch processing is execution of a series of Computer programs on a computer without human interaction.Batch jobs are set up so they can be run to completion without human interaction, so all input data is preselected through Script s or command-line parameters....
 systems for mainframe computer
Mainframe computer

Mainframes are computers used mainly by large organizations for critical applications, typically bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, Enterprise Resource Planning, and financial transaction processing....
s may also be considered "multi-user", to avoid leaving the CPU
Central processing unit

A central processing unit is an electronic circuit that can execute computer programs. This broad definition can easily be applied to many early computers that existed long before the term "CPU" ever came into widespread usage....
 idle while it waits for I/O
Input/output

In computing, input/output, or I/O, refers to the communication between an information processing system , and the outside world ? possibly a human, or another information processing system....
 operations to complete. However, the term "multitasking
Computer multitasking

In computing, multitasking is a method by which multiple tasks, also known as Computer process, share common processing resources such as a Central processing unit....
" is more common in this context.

An example is a Unix
Unix

Unix is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of American Telephone & Telegraph employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson , Dennis Ritchie, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna....
 server where multiple remote users have access (such as via Secure Shell
Secure Shell

Secure Shell or SSH is a network protocol that allows data to be exchanged using a secure channel between two networked devices. Used primarily on Linux and Unix based systems to access shell accounts, SSH was designed as a replacement for TELNET and other Computer security remote Shell s, which send information, notably passwords, in...
) to the Unix shell
Unix shell

A Unix shell is a command-line interpreter and script host that provides a traditional user interface for the Unix operating system and for Unix-like systems....
 prompt at the same time.






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Multi-user is a term that defines an operating system
Operating system

An operating system is an interface between hardware and applications; it is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the limited resources of the computer....
 or application software
Application software

Application software is any tool that functions and is operated by means of a computer, with the purpose of supporting or improving the software user 's work....
 that allows concurrent access by multiple user
User (computing)

In computing, a user is a person who uses a computer or Internet service. A user may have a user account that identifies the user by a username , screenname , or "handle", which is derived from the identical Citizen's Band radio term....
s of a computer
Computer

A computer is a machine that manipulates Data according to a list of Code .The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century , although the computer concept and various machines similar to computers existed earlier....
. Time-sharing
Time-sharing

Time-sharing refers to sharing a computing resource among many users by Computer multitasking. Its introduction in the 1960s, and emergence as the prominent model of computing in the 1970s, represents a major historical shift in the history of computing....
 systems are multi-user systems. Most batch processing
Batch processing

Batch processing is execution of a series of Computer programs on a computer without human interaction.Batch jobs are set up so they can be run to completion without human interaction, so all input data is preselected through Script s or command-line parameters....
 systems for mainframe computer
Mainframe computer

Mainframes are computers used mainly by large organizations for critical applications, typically bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, Enterprise Resource Planning, and financial transaction processing....
s may also be considered "multi-user", to avoid leaving the CPU
Central processing unit

A central processing unit is an electronic circuit that can execute computer programs. This broad definition can easily be applied to many early computers that existed long before the term "CPU" ever came into widespread usage....
 idle while it waits for I/O
Input/output

In computing, input/output, or I/O, refers to the communication between an information processing system , and the outside world ? possibly a human, or another information processing system....
 operations to complete. However, the term "multitasking
Computer multitasking

In computing, multitasking is a method by which multiple tasks, also known as Computer process, share common processing resources such as a Central processing unit....
" is more common in this context.

An example is a Unix
Unix

Unix is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of American Telephone & Telegraph employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson , Dennis Ritchie, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna....
 server where multiple remote users have access (such as via Secure Shell
Secure Shell

Secure Shell or SSH is a network protocol that allows data to be exchanged using a secure channel between two networked devices. Used primarily on Linux and Unix based systems to access shell accounts, SSH was designed as a replacement for TELNET and other Computer security remote Shell s, which send information, notably passwords, in...
) to the Unix shell
Unix shell

A Unix shell is a command-line interpreter and script host that provides a traditional user interface for the Unix operating system and for Unix-like systems....
 prompt at the same time. Another example uses multiple X Window
X Window System

The X Window System is a computing software system and network protocol that provides a graphical user interface for networked computers. It implements the X Window System protocols and architecture and provides windowing system on raster graphics Visual display units and manages Keyboard and pointing device control functions....
 sessions spread across multiple terminals powered by a single machine - this is an example of the use of thin client
Thin client

A thin client is a client computer or client software in client-server architecture networks which depends primarily on the central Server for processing activities, and mainly focuses on conveying input and output between the user and the remote server....
.

Management systems are implicitly designed to be used by multiple users, typically one system administrator
System administrator

A system administrator, systems administrator, or sysadmin, is a person employed to maintain and operate a computer system and/or computer network....
 or more and an end-user
End-user (computer science)

The end-user is a concept in software engineering, referring to an abstraction of the group of persons who will ultimately operate a piece of software ....
 community.

The complementary term, single-user, is most commonly used when talking about an operating system being usable only by one person at a time, or in reference to a single-user software license agreement
Software license agreement

A software license agreement is a contract between a producer and a user of computer software which grants the user a software license. Most often, a software license agreement indicates the terms under which an end-user may utilize the licensed software, in which case the agreement is called an end-user license agreement or EULA...
. Multi-user operating systems such as Unix sometimes have a single user process available for emergency maintenance.

See also

  • Single user mode
    Single user mode

    Single user mode is a mode in which a multiuser computer operating system boot into a single superuser. It is mainly used for maintenance of multi-user environments such as network servers....
  • Multiseat
    Multiseat

    A multiseat, multi-station or multiterminal configuration is a single computer which supports multiple independent users at the same time....
  • MUHI-G-STYLE


External links

paper about the Unix
Unix

Unix is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of American Telephone & Telegraph employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson , Dennis Ritchie, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna....
 multi-user model and MS-Windows NT TSE
Terminal Services

Terminal Services, renamed as Remote Desktop Services from Windows Server 2008 R2 onwards, is one of the components of Microsoft Windows that allows a user to access applications and data on a remote computer over a network....