What is a "login"?

What is a "login"?

Ethan Feerst and Dylan Stewart (Technology Therapist, Mac Guru) gives expert video advice on: What is a "search engine"?; What is the difference between "upload" and "download"?; What is "spam"? and more...

The concept of a login has always been primary to computers, which have always been coming from a security-conscious place. Information that's on computers was originally the domain of the Department of Defense or academic institutions, highly technical and highly proprietary in nature, so no kind of computer access was ever allowed without some level of security; at the very least, some kind of user name and password or login name and password. And fundamentally, because if you're going to receive email, you need a way to identify yourself to the computer so that you're allowed to pick it up, you do need to create some kind of login name and password that you're going to use to identify yourself so that you can pick up your e-mail.