Customizing Ubuntu

[Alfred Vahau]

Matthew S-H wrote:

> There could be a "meta" package (like ubuntu-base) in Synaptic.  It 
> could depend on all the packages required for a default-ish kiosk, and 
> conflict with all packages that are not needed.  This would make it 
> easy for any business user to get to a default kiosk install.  He or 
> she could then modify it or customize it as neccessary (by removing 
> "kiosk-base" and installing any packages he or she might want).
>
> Alternatively, it might be nice to have a "barebones-base" type of 
> package that simply removed all of the fancy extras in Ubuntu (but it 
> would leave Gnome).  This way, users with fast computers (enough for 
> Gnome) could install Ubuntu with little disk space.
>
>
> ~Matt
>
>
> On Apr 7, 2005, at 12:53 PM, Vincent Trouilliez wrote:
>
>>> Just an idea.  It would be nice to compile a list of features that
>>> would need to be disabled to enable a "kiosk" mode.  Maybe in the
>>> future (Hoary + 1), there could be an option to enable a "kiosk" mode
>>> for a specific set of users.  This might attract a lot of niche
>>> businesses/users that might not want to deal with the current (and
>>> rather expensive) alternatives in the Windows world.  For example, my
>>> younger sister can somehow mess up ANY computer (I don't get it at
>>> ALL), and it might help to make a kiosk account for her.
>>>
>>> Again, just an idea I'm throwing out.  Either way, I think Ubuntu is
>>> awesome!  Certainly better than Windows, and possibly better than
>>> Macs.
>>>
>>>
>>> ~Matt
>>
>>
>> Not sure of the best way to implement this in practice, but the basic
>> idea sounds great to me :-)
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Vince
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> ubuntu-users mailing list
>> ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
>> http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
>
>
>
The bare bones base-install with Genome would be a very attractive 
feature. I did a custom installation and using the
command line to install the desired features  turned out to be 
frustrating as I had to figure out the dependency rules, etc.
Someone more familiar with Ubuntu would done things a lot faster. Given 
the slow network I operate under, looking up the
archives was a bit frustrating. So I did a default installation again 
and now using the Syaptic PM so I can see what is happening.

With the help of the list, I hope to roll out my first kiosk browser for 
our library by the end of this month. This will be followed by 10 others 
so getting the first one correctly configured is essential.

Alfred,