[NBLUG/talk] Distributing OpenOffice to schools

[E Frank Ball]

On Tue, Aug 12, 2003 at 12:42:34PM -0700, Todd Cary wrote:
} 
} What I would love to be able to do is put together a computer that is 
} using a discontinued mother board and a "locked-down" edition Linux that 
} has just Open Office, an email client and a browser.  The audience would 
} be older folks or kids that want to do just those what those 
} applications provide.  No "Blue Screens"!
} 
} But maybe my goals are not realistic?

I've done something similar for Linux and HP-UX computers at work.
We use them on the production lines and the technicians and assemblers
need to be able to walk up to them and do what they need to do for their
job, but we locked out access to a command line prompt or any
applications that could be subject to possible abuse.  We don't want the
ability to send anonymous email, make anonymous newsgroup postings,
portscan, etc.

The Linux boxes are using a highly customized fvwm environment.  Turn
the box on and it logs in automatically.  There are a few buttons they
can click for the necessary applications, but nothing else.   They can
access email and other programs by logging in with their own username
which gives us the traceability we need, but this could easily be left
out.

Netscape-Navigator and Galeon have no email, news, chat capability and
can be used to allow web browsing only.  We can change the permissions
on the preferences file to lock out the corporate web proxy server to
restrict web browsing to internal company web sites only.  Something
similar could probably be done by setting up your own web proxy to
restrict web browsing.  We originally used Netscape-Navigator but are
transitioning to Galeon on the Linux boxes and Mozilla on the HP-UX
boxes.  Somebody is recompiling them to remove the preferences selection
from the user interface.

Mike (ME) did something similar with fvwm at the Sonoma State Library. 

There is also this web page:  http://dot.kde.org/997748764/
the "KDE Kiosk Mode HOWTO" which documents doing the same thing with
KDE.

I don't have time to go into the details right now, but I'd be happy to
help someone with this project.

-- 

   E Frank Ball                frankb at efball.com