I’m developing standardized Windows XP images for my customers that include an application originally developed on Macs. The application’s tech support guy and I talk via e-mail but we’re not communicating. He seems to know very little about PCs and the last Mac I touched came in black & white only (18 years ago?). So I know even less about his world.
Here’s our stumbling point: In Windows XP, part of the license information for the application is located in C:\Documents and Settings\All users\Shared Documents. When you run it, some license key files get created in C:\Documents and Settings*username*\My Documents. If multiple usernames attempt to use the application, we end up with multiple conflicting license files - each of which claims ownership of the license stored in Shared Documents. He seems to think this is only a problem when the PC is attached to a server, an environment they don’t support. But even stand-alone XP machines create different profiles with different My Documents for different usernames. I’m guessing they’ve only tested this in environments where only one XP username was ever used.
I’m looking for advice from folks who work in both worlds. Can you help me understand his world little and translate some concepts? Am I correct to assume OSX has a similar ability to support multiple sign-ins on the same stand-alone machine, each with its own profile and personal storage? Is this feature frequently overlooked or bypassed as it is in the Windows world? What would be the equivalent path or notation for the paths noted above? What is the Mac terminology to used describe the concepts of username, multiple usernames, My Documents, profiles, etc.?
(What I’d really like to do is rant in the Pit about software companies with licensing/copy protection schemes that get in the way of using and supporting their products. But that would be futile.)