Multi-user

Multi-user is a term that defines an operating system that allows access of multiple users to the computer at the same time. All time-sharing systems are multi-user systems, but most batch processing systems for mainframes are too, to avoid leaving the CPU idle while it waits for I/O operations to complete.

An example is a Unix server where multiple remote users have access (via Telnet or SSH) to the Unix shell prompt at the same time. Another example uses multiple X sessions spread across multiple monitors powered by a single machine.

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

External links

Interix in a Multi-User Windows TSE Environment: paper about the Unix multi-user model and MS-Windows NT Terminal Services