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

[Jordan Erickson]

Hi John,

I know you said you didn't think gconf had the lockdown functionality you
need, but it's all I use to lock down my student desktops, besides
standard Linux practices.

Here is some information I've gathered over time regarding Gnome desktop
lockdown in Ubuntu/LTSP/Edubuntu (This was just information I thought was
useful in my elementary student labs, and I know - some of this stuff is
of "ugly hack" status and might not all be completely tested for all
environments so be conscious of what you're doing):

Useful lockdown GConf keys: http://lns.wikidot.com/gconf
Clean up menus: http://lns.wikidot.com/gnomecleanupmenus
Custom menus: http://lns.wikidot.com/gnomecustommenus
Hide directories in Nautilus: http://lns.wikidot.com/nautilushidefilesystem
Mandatory Firefox homepage for all:
http://lns.wikidot.com/firefoxmandatoryhomepage
Lock down user home dirs: http://lns.wikidot.com/userdirsecurity


HTH,
Jordan


> > 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,
...