diff --git a/docs/authentication.txt b/docs/authentication.txt
index 3604fe7360..0b7094188d 100644
--- a/docs/authentication.txt
+++ b/docs/authentication.txt
@@ -267,25 +267,17 @@ previous section). You can tell them apart with ``is_anonymous()``, like so::
 How to log a user in
 --------------------
 
-Depending on your task, you'll probably want to make sure to validate the 
-user's username and password before you log them in. The easiest way to do so 
-is to use the built-in ``authenticate`` and ``login`` functions from within a 
-view::
+To log a user in, do the following within a view::
 
-    from django.contrib.auth import authenticate, login
-    username = request.POST['username']
-    password = request.POST['password']
-    user = authenticate(username=username, password=password)
-    if user is not None:
-        login(request, user)
+    from django.contrib.auth.models import SESSION_KEY
+    request.session[SESSION_KEY] = some_user.id
 
-``authenticate`` checks the username and password. If they are valid it 
-returns a user object, otherwise it returns ``None``. ``login`` makes it so 
-your users don't have send a username and password for every request. Because 
-the ``login`` function uses sessions, you'll need to make sure you have 
-``SessionMiddleware`` enabled. See the `session documentation`_ for 
-more information.
+Because this uses sessions, you'll need to make sure you have
+``SessionMiddleware`` enabled. See the `session documentation`_ for more
+information.
 
+This assumes ``some_user`` is your ``User`` instance. Depending on your task,
+you'll probably want to make sure to validate the user's username and password.
 
 Limiting access to logged-in users
 ----------------------------------
@@ -619,53 +611,3 @@ Finally, note that this messages framework only works with users in the user
 database. To send messages to anonymous users, use the `session framework`_.
 
 .. _session framework: http://www.djangoproject.com/documentation/sessions/
-
-Other Authentication Sources
-============================
-
-Django supports other authentication sources as well. You can even use 
-multiple sources at the same time.
-
-Using multiple backends
------------------------
-
-The list of backends to use is controlled by the ``AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS`` 
-setting. This should be a tuple of python path names. It defaults to 
-``('django.contrib.auth.backends.ModelBackend',)``. To add additional backends
-just add them to your settings.py file. Ordering matters, so if the same
-username and password is valid in multiple backends, the first one in the
-list will return a user object, and the remaining ones won't even get a chance.
-
-Writing an authentication backend
----------------------------------
-
-An authentication backend is a class that implements 2 methods: ``get_user(id)``
-and ``authenticate(**credentials)``. The ``get_user`` method takes an id, which 
-could be a username, and database id, whatever, and returns a user object. The 
-``authenticate`` method takes credentials as keyword arguments. Many times it 
-will just look like this::
-
-    class MyBackend:
-        def authenticate(username=None, password=None):
-            # check the username/password and return a user
-
-but it could also authenticate a token like so::
-
-    class MyBackend:
-        def authenticate(token=None):
-            # check the token and return a user
-
-Regardless, ``authenticate`` should check the credentials it gets, and if they 
-are valid, it should return a user object that matches those credentials.
-
-The Django admin system is tightly coupled to the Django User object described 
-at the beginning of this document. For now, the best way to deal with this is to
-create a Django User object for each user that exists for your backend (i.e.
-in your ldap directory, your external sql database, etc.) You can either 
-write a script to do this in advance, or your ``authenticate`` method can do 
-it the first time a user logs in. `django.contrib.auth.backends.SettingsBackend`_
-is an example of the latter approach. Note that you don't have to save a user's
-password in the Django User object. Your backend can still check the password
-against an external source, and return a Django User object.
-
-.. _django.contrib.auth.backends.SettingsBackend: http://code.djangoproject.com/browser/django/branches/magic-removal/django/contrib/auth/backends.py