Not a dumb question at all...I get the impression you would like "simultaneous users" sharing one box. Yes, this can be done, but it does require a certain amount of work to do it. The most effective way I've found to do it is with VMware. You can setup a virtual machine to use as the guest account. Then, you need a program like "USB over Network", we'll get to that in a minute. You do need some common hardware. A second Monitor for one, and a USB keyboard and mouse for the guest ( they must be USB ). I've found that a different kind ( brand/model ) than the host works best too. A USB soundcard is optional here too. Pretty much most any USB device can be mapped directly to the guest OS, locking out host access as well. This is important as it prevents "fighting" over clicks between the 2 users.
Fire up a VM with networking, then use "USB over network"to route whatever USB devices you want designated to the guest. Switch to your VM and make sure to disable the automatic mouse over feature in VMtools. If you have the client portion of "USB over network" installed your USB devices should work fine. Your client mouse and keyboard should not have any function on your host OS at this point. Using your Host mouse, move the VM to your second monitor, auto resize, etc to fill the monitor, and click back on the host OS's desktop to release the host mouse from the guest OS. Now the quest OS has a functioning keyboard and mouse ( and entire OS ) , while the host can go about his business.
While this will definately work, it takes true dedication to make it perform well as a desktop. A thorough understanding of VMware and all the tricks and tweaks to make it faster including DirectX support and 128MB graphic support is required. A dedicated disk should be used for the VM itself. The fastest drives possible, preferebly in RAID 0 just for the VM. A quad core processor at absulute minimum. Here's where multi-socket systems really shine. I prefer the AMD over the XEON here ( comparing multi-socket systems ) particularily for the NUMA Support, which helps immenslly for guest OS performance. You can use Task Manager to assign the VM to run on a specific socket and NUMA uses that sockets RAM for the VM, thus splitting both Host and Guest all the way down to a hardware level. You can also split the multiple buses/controller cards if you install your hardware in the right locations. You of course also need gobs of RAM to make sure the memory assigned to that socket doesn't walk to other sockets. I would be intersted to see how an i7 could handle this kind of workload. Iv'e tried running this kind of set-up on a single socket quadcore and performance suffered, but was still usable. On the other hand, my old quad-socket single core opteron handles this just fine.
This concept can be taken out as far as you want. The limit of simultaneous users depends entirely on how many monitors and graphic cards you have and how much sysytem resources you can thow at it. Gaming is possible also. Their are many list for VMware compatible games out there - you usually find them on Mac or Linux sights for VMware, but the lists are just as valid for VMworkstations- running in a windows enviornment, just don't expect to run crysis
. I am currently building a system specifically for multi-users slated for 3 simultaneous user workstations, 1 remote VPN workstation for working away from home, and 2 mediacenter VM's streaming to 2 different entertainment centers. ( think household TiVo ).
A simple 2nd user surfing station can usually be pulled off quite easily on most systems, but any heavier computing will usually slow the system substansially. It is important to at least have the VM running off a seperate HDD than the host OS, and prefereblly on a completelly dedicated one to garuntee isolation from host activites.
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