Mailinglist Archive: opensuse-edu (292 mails)

["Mark Evans" <mpe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Can anyone point me to some instructions for locking
> down a desktop (as I'm used to doing in Windoze with
> policies etc). I want to sort out just a few icons and
> options on the menu as default, so when I create users
> they all get the same desktop, that they cannot
> change.

This is something which IMHO desktop designers
have tended to ignore. (At least they havn't
duplicated the Windows copying back and forth
of "profiles".)

The best solution, AFAICT, would be a derivative
of the traditional unix style global and per
user configuration. With the additional feature
of the global configuration using a scripting
language with the ability to set variables
as either "default";, use this unless there is
some other setting in the users local config or
"fixed"; use this value, ignore any reference
to this variable in the per user config and 
disable any dialogue the user might usually
have to change it.

e.g.

IF %U ingroup (@staff) THEN
   http_proxy=DEFAULT(192.168.255.253:3128)
ELSE
   http_proxy=FIXED(192.168.255.254:3128)

Also for such things as program menu's and
desktop icons it dosn't make much sense
having multiple copies of the same things.

Makes far more sense for these to work
on an "overlay" principle. Where you can
have a global default, an arbitry number
of group specific additions and optional
user additions which are "stuck" together
when someone logs in.

-- 
Mark Evans
St. Peter's CofE High School
Phone: +44 1392 204764 X109
Fax: +44 1392 204763