Difference Between Virtual and Regular Users on Debian

Regular Users

• Real users use user accounts
• Each process runs as a particular user
• A particular user owns each file
• A human/real user has a real login shell e.g. /bin/sh, /bin/bash, /bin/csh
• A human user usually has a home directory (most of the time in /home)

Virtual Users

• A virtual user or service account usually runs as a daemon or is linked to a process like web shells, FTP's, or a service running on the system, rather than to someone using the system.
• A virtual user has its own set of privileges, e.g., its own files and its own network ports.
• A service account may not have the ability to use a shell. It is used to execute services with restricted scope and privilege.
• These accounts isolate various services that run on a machine to not tread on each others' toes.