Via GDM you can configure it to run multiple X's.  For example on one 
machine my wife and I share I have gdm auto start on 0 and 1.  Then I 
login to 0 and when my wife wants on she does a ctrl-alt F8 and logs 
herself in and we toggle back and forth throughout the day.  Now that the 
kids are using her machine a lot, I suppose its time to config them.

Also each user can run own desktop preference, so my wife logins to Gnome 
I login to fluxbox.  We got a new machine whos video card is poorly 
supported (sigh) and we cant do this, and its the feature my wife 
complains most about not having.  Go figure. :)

Oh I suppose I could add my wife is a housewife with not a geek bone in 
her body and not only does she use GNU/Linux she is a Debian gal. ;)

I think they call that SwirlPower. (pun and humor intended)

-Derek
On Wed, 17 Jul 2002, KevinO wrote:

> Logan Kennelly wrote:
> > 1) The ability to change graphical users (locally) without logging the 
> > original user out.  
> 
> Two methods :
> 
> 1) Type :
>    $ su <username>
>    in a terminal window and then execute as that user from there.
> 
> 2) Go back to a virtual console and login as the new user. Then you can use
>    $ startx -- :1
>    and start a second X session as that user. The first GUI should be on
>    <CRTL><ALT><F7> and the second one on <CTRL><ALT><F8>. Parameters after the
>    '--' are passed on to the server. I have been able to run gnome, KDE and
>    Xfce at the same time this way. The ':1' tells the server to use the second
>    display and leave the one currently running alone.
> 
> There should be a way to make this work using Xtart, startkde, startgnome etc. 
> but I don't know how. I get 'don't own console' errors .
> 
> 
> 
>