Feature request: Session time-limit?

[Corey Burger]

On 6/1/06, Sean Hammond <sean.hammond at gmail.com> wrote:
> I've got some ubuntu PCs running as free Internet and computing access
> in a volunteer space and they, too, have asked for some automatic
> session control.
>
> They find that some people will hog the computers, and others who are
> waiting will be too polite to ask, so the staff have to keep track of
> it manually. This is one of the major problems they've always had with
> the computers (prior to Ubuntu, they ran Windows).
>
> The other main thing they asked for was just what you suggest Corey -
> automatically cleaning up the session. It annoys the staff when people
> leave saved files lying around and downloaded stuff etc.
>
> So, integrated session timing and clean-up would be quite nice.
>
> Another idea we had was a 'public mode' toggle button for the default
> ubuntu settings and default app settings. There's a whole bunch of
> settings spread around the system that have to be changed for an
> ubuntu account to be setup appropriately for public access. For
> example, you want the account to login automatically (after a few
> seconds) rather than requiring a password everytime the machine is
> rebooted. You want Firefox to not offer to remember password and form
> info, and to not keep cookies. You don't want the screensaver to lock
> the screen and require a password. Etc. I think this might be
> implemented well as an account profile when creating a new account.
> Currently you can choose between 'administrator' and 'desktop user'
> profiles, 'public' would be a desktop account profile with the above
> default settings changed.

This should be done with Sabayon and Pessulus. They are both written
in Python and their maintainers are happy to take patches.

Corey