[KLUG Members] Kiosk / Lightweight Workstation Recommendations

[Bruce Smith]

CD disto's are nice for some things, but not so much for a desktop.
First they are slow, and second it's very time consuming to keep them
updated every time a security hole in Firefox/[whatever] is found.

I really like Ubuntu (I've only used the PPC version on my powerbook),
so no flames from me on that decision.

I'm not sure there is any reason to customize it.  Why not just use
stock Ubuntu and give users a non-root/admin account, which can easily
be deleted/added to reset it to a "stock" configuration?  (or just save
the home directory off to the side and wipe/restore it to reset)

If you end up need a "nocat-like" server, talk to me.  I completely
rewrote it using Devil-Linux as the server.  It may work better for you.

 - BS


> I have been kicking around two kiosk scenarios and would like some 
> outside perspective. I am trying to decide between a customized live CD 
> or a locked-down desktop environment installed to hard drive.
> 
> Two PIII/933 machines each with monitors, and one network printer. Each 
> should have Firefox, OpenOffice.org, network printing, write to CD-R/USB 
> drive only. The intended purpose is a workstation that people (generally 
> from small organizations/businesses) can sit in front of and use for 
> "Business" type research - without a Linux person holding their hand. 
> After using the system they will get both a live CD and (maybe) an 
> install CD.
> 
> The project does have two constraints: It has to be Gnome, and it has to 
> be on Ubuntu. Debian will do for obvious reasons. This is not to start a 
> flame war but donning my fire retardant suit anyway.
> 
> The custom CD makes sense from the oops factor. If you make a mistake or 
> an error is encountered, just reboot. Negatives, it is slow and very 
> rigid. Plus, all changes require a rebuild, reburn, etc. The 
> customization process is not the easiest, and there is no one set way to 
> create it, although it _can_ be somewhat automated.
> 
> The locked-down desktop makes sense from a flexibility standpoint, but 
> the trade-off of speed is negated by the use of a hard drive that could 
> be a point of failure. And even after removing launchers from the 
> panel(s) who knows if you "really" have everything locked down? Another 
> big challenge here is blowing away the user directory after logout and 
> recreating a clean user directory with the bare minimum dot config files 
> et al.
> 
> I have also thought of LTSP/Thin Client but it should/must go through 
> NoCat (or another auth/accounting scheme) which generally blows up 
> networking on LTSP right nicely.