[K12OSN] Introduction and questions

Les Mikesell les at futuresource.com
Sun Dec 4 06:23:20 UTC 2005


On Sun, 2005-12-04 at 00:02, Mike Ely wrote:

> > But if you can't set up individual logins, how
> > about having each workstation auto-login with its own account
> > to avoid conflicts with running programs that expect to have
> > unique files in their $HOME directory?
> > 
> 
> For starters, that will probably work, and I intend to create student 
> accounts as soon as time allows, but in general I really prefer that any 
> computer can access any set of files, as my experience has been that 
> assigning students to computers creates sometimes-unsurmountable hassles 
> when the lab is over-full, a machine breaks down, or teachers decide to 
> move the kids around for student management reasons.

If you are running thin clients on the same server or have a
common /home NFS mounted, any user can log into his own account
anywhere and access his own files.   This may be a problem
if you have users trying to share a computer without logging
out/in as they switch.

> PS: Does anyone else think that "running programs that expect to have 
> unique files in their $HOME directory" is an example of developer 
> sloppiness?  I can see the use for it in, say, a mail client, but a word 
> proccessor?  Web browser?  Please!  fork(), tee, etc. (not to mention if 
> loops), are there for a reason!

Storing user preferences in his own $HOME has been the unix way
of doing things from the beginning of time.  I can't imagine
why you would want user-specific data anywhere else.

-- 
  Les Mikesell
    les at futuresource.com





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