Towards a simpler desktop environment: What is the current state ofthe art?

[Greg Reagle]

Here is what I did on 2007-01-04, Edubuntu 6.06.  It worked and still
works well.
<<<
I locked the GNOME Panel on all of the comp accounts.  It is still
possible to change it temporarily during a login session, but after
logging out and logging back in it will revert to its default state.

I made this command and ran it for each user:

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 100 2007-01-04 18:06
/usr/local/bin/lock-gnome-panel

HarveyHall:~$ cat /usr/local/bin/lock-gnome-panel
#!/bin/sh
rm -r ~/.gconf/apps/panel
mkdir -p ~/.gconf/apps/panel
chmod u=rx,go= ~/.gconf/apps/panel
>>>
-- 
greg reagle | computer technician, system administrator | community it
innovators - CITI | 202-234-1600 ext. 353


> -----Original Message-----
> From: edubuntu-users-bounces at lists.ubuntu.com [mailto:edubuntu-users-
> bounces at lists.ubuntu.com] On Behalf Of john
> Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2008 1:53 PM
> To: Edubuntu Users Group
> Subject: Towards a simpler desktop environment: What is the current
state
> ofthe art?
> 
> Hello all,
> 
> I am getting complaints from teachers that students are customizing
> their desktops to the point that they are distracting students from
> productive work. I'd like to make the edubuntu desktop MUCH simpler,
> just an applications menu and little else. I guess the approach is to
> lock the desktops but I'd like to take the "right" approach. I've used
> both the gconf-editor and Sabayon in the past with mixed results. The
> last time I looked Sabayon was seriously broken ( I use winbind to
> authenticate users and after applying Sabayon no students could log
> in). I don't see that gconf-editor has the ability to lock the
> desktop, prevent changes to desktop fonts, backgrounds and remove
> access to system settings.
> 
> Does anyone have a recipe for simplifying and locking down student
> desktops.
> Does anyone have experience with KDE/Kiosk Tool and would anyone
> recommend this over the gnome environment?
> How can I get _complete_ control over the user environment?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> John
> 
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