[plug] public access PCs

[Gavin Chester]

On 10/10/15 08:58, David Godfrey wrote:
> Hi Gavin,
> 
> Similar to Oliver's suggestion, I would start with the idea that the
> install should be "static".
> Logging out and back in should reset the drive content to a "clean" state.
> 
> There are many ways to achieve this such as
> 

Thanks for a well considered, comprehensive reply, David :-)

I have taken on board your suggestions. There are some confounding
factors in my specific case, which precludes some of the options
suggested (won't bore you with details). Also, I didn't want to 'get my
hands too dirty' mucking around with the software because it is a
distraction from my main duties that I don't want taking over my time!

At this stage, I've been testing lots of lightweight distros, with a
view to locking them down once I have the setup I want. Another way is
to freeze the install so that it gets reset with a reboot. One packaged
tool I saw recommended for doing this is Lethe - GPL Partition Freezing
Software.

Then there are several ready-rolled kiosk distros that I've been looking
at. The trouble with these is you don't get the extra few packages that
I wanted that aren't run in a browser. The best kiosk I've tried is
Porteus (also avail as a desktop version) and it has a remastering
facility for adding extra packages. I haven't tried that facility yet
because of the time factor, but it is a pretty slick kiosk.

It's always tricky to know how much to say without boring everyone
versus knowing that the story of my journey would make for good reading
for someone in future in the archives via google :-/

-- 
Gavin Chester

email: gavin.chester at gmail.com