There is the 'user' user on this device, and I'm hoping to get rid of it. Is this user necessary to keep the device functioning? i.e. are any services owned by this user? Is there anything special about this user or is this user just living in an environment created by root?

Also, how does the system know to boot into the user 'user' and where can I change that?

I'd like to create my own set of users, but I don't know where to start.

I am sure you will get other replies. It is my understanding that the user 'user' is hard coded, and will be the only user and owner of the GUI. If you delete 'user' you probably won't be able to run the GUI.

A single user system is always the difficulty with embedded devices (the zaurus had the same problem, with the user being 'zaurus'). The manufacturer, in this case Nokia, wants the unit to start up in a GUI without the owner realizing there are users and permissions underneath it all. So they set up one unprivilaged user, and on the n800, it is 'user'

I hope this helps,

Craig...

Why would you like to get rid of "user" ??
It is probably possible to replace it by mmmhh user2 but you'll need to modify the starting scripts. This could easily break a lot of things. I don't see the point.

What I did from the start is to add my own user for not messing the user's configuration. I remember some people having problems to boot when they changed settings for this user (I think going from sh to bash).

You can install package "adduser" for creating a user. Works great.

Take care!

On a Linux system (or _any_ non-braindead system) you don't ever run user applications under the root account, you need a user account for that. And that's exactly what the 'user' account on the tablet is: Your browser, your media players, maemo mapper, other 3party software, they all execute as 'user'. Which means that applications you install won't be able to write to your system files (open up ssh login backdoors, for example). It keeps your device healthy.