OT: getting the family in on Linux. was: Re: new twist on shutting down and restricting ssh users
On Wed, Mar 06, 2002 at 01:28:02PM -0800, nate wrote:
> I personally do not let anyone in my family touch my
> computers, its the unspoken law. Don't go near them.
> i setup my ultra 1 so people can use it for stuff, but
> my firewalls and real servers are off limits.
I have a somewhat similar situation here at my house.
This made me think some folks on this group might be interesting in
learning how I setup the family computers to allow my parents to ease
into Linux. The concept here isn't particularly deep or anything, but
it was quite a while before the idea dawned on me.
Basically, I had talked up Linux so much to my dad that he was
legitimately interested in giving it a try. But I didn't really want
to do the work to backup all his Windows data, repartition, install
Linux, and get the whole dual-boot thing going. Even then my dad
might not use it simply because he'd have to reboot when going between
systems.
The solution: vnc. I have two computers, my "workstation" and my
"server." The server's role is diald, firewall and gateway. So most
of the time it just sits working on seti@home. Finally a simple idea
came to me: I could make an account for my dad on the server machine
and have vncserver running on it. I also installed KDE for him, as
well as StarOffice and Mozilla. I also have samba going, and shared
his home directory to the "network neighborhood." That allowed him to
map his Linux account directory on his NT box as a network drive (i.e.
seamless sharing of files between his Windows pc and his Linux home
directory).
Thus far it's worked out really well for him. When we get some more
time, I plan to go over some of the intricacies with him, maybe ease
him into some sysadmin type stuff.
Anyway---I don't want to insult anyone's intelligence---I had the
capability of doing this long before I got the idea, so my goal was to
help out anyone on whom this hadn't yet dawned :) It's an easy way to
let someone slowly wade into Linux without having to do the whole
partition and dual-boot rigamarole.
--
Matt Garman, matt@raw-sewage.net
``I ain't never seen no whiskey, the blues made my sloppy drunk!''
-- Sleepy John Estes, ``Leaving Trunk''
Reply to: