Linux user management

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I've been watching some old episodes of 24 and watching about all the user access levels and codes and all that, it has made me wonder about something. Obviously whatever OS they used in 24 is fictional, but it would not be windows, so my question is in a buisness where security is crucial, how is user management dealt with in a linux based environment?

Although i do not know about the windows side of things in this matter, i do know that they have active directory and centralized domain controllers which allow complete control over what users can/can't access. Does Linux have some sort of equivilant?

One of my thoughts is that Linux gives so much control over the whole OS and everything that is running that it may be harder to manage security. But this is my thoughts based on my limiited experience with linux in a desktop situation, not corporate.



Also, a bit off-topic but i didn't want to make a new thread just for this, in 24 they show that people can transfer a window from one users desktop on one machine to another user on another machine. Is this realy possible or is it just another made up thing for TV?

 

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to your off-topic question
you mean something like synergy?

I'm not entirely sure about synergy as i only just had a quick read on wikipedia about it. Basicaly on 24 what they could do is have a window of some program, say internet explorer, and through the menu system of some sort they can choose to send that to another computer. That other computer then has internet explorer pop up with the exact contents that it had on the previous computer. This can be done between multiple computers controlled by multiple users, and any program.

 

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How standardized are these measures to manage user/group security? Do different companies that implement linux use different methods/products, are is there a specific one that is more important/widespread then the others? I'm thinking about trying to buy a few books or look for some decent guides on the subject, as well as on windows AD, and i just need to know which of the things mentioned in this thread i should start learning about.