In 14.04, how can I switch between users on the console without entering a password? This has been asked by others many times over the years (such as here), and it seems it always gets redirected to something else that's close but not the same. So, I'll try to be exact in the use case below, to avoid any misunderstandings of the goal. Sorry for the length.
The sole reason for switching between users is so family members at our home can have their own browser favorites/history, their own unity session prefs (I use dvorak and swap esc/capslck), etc. We use a BIOS password to prevent routine machine access; security amongst ourselves is not a concern. We don't use any drive or mount point encryption, so I've no illusions of protection after physical theft.
I do want a password on my account, so I can authenticate for system updates, authenticate with sudo for various activities, scp between various machines, etc.
I would prefer to be prompted for a password if I'm not already logged into the console, but not again when just switching from other users. If I'd ever feel the need for a session lock, I could live with just logging out instead, though it's not preferable.
An ubuntuforums hack for 12.04 of uninstalling gnome-screensaver worked well for that old release, but doesn't work under 14.04.
Setting disable-lock-screen (per a couple ways here) also doesn't work.
Settings|Brightness|Lock=OFF doesn't help
Because this is important for us, I'm willing to try other flavors (lubuntu, xubuntu) or even other distros to get this functionality, but prefer unity from the main ubuntu distro.
Following the idea here, I'm currently test driving password-less standard accounts, and using password-protected administrator account (not root) for software updates, scp commands, etc. This mostly accomplishes the goal, and (since I'm old-school) it feels right to use a dedicated admin acct for admin-ish things, but I'd still like the option to lock my session.
(If this is a missing feature, I'm thinking launchpad is the best avenue for submitting a feature request; correct me if I'm wrong.)