Hi

I know there are about a hundred posts a day here concerning internet café solutions etc. but this is a bit different. I'm working at a youth club in Norway, and we have a section where the youths can use computers, mainly for internet-related stuff, but also possibly office apps and in extremely rare occations, image manipulation etc. Some of these youths seem to have a certain apetite for destruction... especially when it allows them to prove to the others what geniuses they are for breaking such a secure OS as Linux! What I am searching for is a distro that is VERY secure and limited for the casual user, and preferably "user-friendly". However, there is no need for any time limit, or a POS system, and if I can avoid tweaking one of those to my needs I would be very happy. A fellow linux-user convinced me to install Fedora Core 3 on a machine here, and tweak it until it was safe. Well, it's ALMOST safe now, but it seems Red Hat have put a lot of user-specific config files outside of the /home directory! Or is it GNOME who does this? Anyway, you can still ruin the GUI settings without a problem, and the only way I've figured out to restore is to either do a COMPLETE restore of the system from a previous backup, or to manually reset the destroyed settings. I've heard about something called lumix, but their site is down, does anybody know if this is permanent or temporary? And I guess having them send a copy all the way here is quite out of the question... (I mean, they're not exactly ubuntu) Is lumix the closest I can get? (it actually seemed pretty darn close from what I could read) Or are there any alternatives?

HMRubuntu

hmmm, maybe live CDs might be the answer..... or a thin client solution.

maybe if they 'accidentally' broke their fingers...???

i jest!

if they were remote systems i would suggest a chrooted ssh jail, but when they can actually get their claws on the machine its a bit more difficult. it might be worth creating an image that simply wipes out the install, if need be.

its an interesting question though! people deliberately breaking things....

how are they actually doing it? using the terminal?

why don't you create a user with nil menu and no access to the desk top and have the applications start at boot no other permissions allowed without root privilages.. may be limiting but thats the idea.. no..



there are programmes around that set them selves up like that... don.t know where to get them as i prefer restoring not destroying..

Simple run a LiveCD. Nothing to screw up for repair. If soemthing does happen to get messed up just reboot and its fixed.

You also might want to look at setting KDE up in Kiosk mode.
KDE Kiosk Mode
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7718
"KDE's Kiosk Mode, allows a system administrator to configure all aspects of the desktop for an end user and optionally prevent the end user from making modifications to the provided setup."