ToggleDesktopModes

ToggleDesktopModes

Status

Introduction & Rationale

The aim of this specification is to define a mechanism for administrators and users to create desktop defaults and mandatory settings for use in large deployments, educational environments, or other situations where desktop lockdown and central configuration are desired. Most importantly, we give administrators the ability to define profiles per group or class of user, which dramatically reduces the administrative overhead of complex environments with different kinds of users who have a wide range of tasks.

Scope and Use Cases

An administrator may want to:

  • Create a set of modified desktop settings for their environment
  • Maintain a number of settings profiles for different classes of users, such as: Administration, Developer, Student, Teacher, etc
  • Create a call centre, public kiosk or student classroom with locked down client desktops, focusing on particular applications

Implementation Plan

SebastienBacher has packaged sabayon for inclusion into Ubuntu. Sabayon is a Red Hat / GNOME project that allows administrators to create and maintain GConf and Mozilla settings profiles in a cleverly usable way. It allows for direct manipulation of a fake user's desktop to define default and mandatory settings for each profile.

Packages Affected

sabayon should be included in 'supported', as it is not appropriate for the default desktop (administration of user profiles is rare, and only satisfied by a few use cases).

Outstanding Issues

We need to better integrate Sabayon on Ubuntu systems, including management of the special 'sabayon' user.

Remote management of desktop settings will require a push mechanism for non-thin-client machines, or an LDAP backend for GConf. This is a much larger project, and should be addressed in a new specification after BreezyBadger.

UbuntuDownUnder/BOFs/ToggleDesktopModes (last edited 2008-08-06 16:14:49 by localhost)