Re: Is a Universal Desktop Experience possible?
On Sat, Jul 11, 2009 at 12:50:29AM -0700, Steve McCarthy wrote:
> On Friday 10 July 2009, Rob Owens wrote:
> > On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 04:24:03PM -0700, SteveM wrote:
> > > What I'd like is a Universal Desktop Experience, i.e. same kicker
> > > applets, same konsole profiles, same amarok playlists, same xpad
> > > postits, etc, whereever I login. I'm a KDE type, but afaict the
> > > issue affects all DE's.
> > >
> > > My goal doesn't seem unreasonable and I expect others share it. If
> > > that group includes you, what's your solution? Is there a
> > > non-web-based UDE?
> >
> > I think NFS mounted /home should work, as long as you're using the same
> > distro on each computer. Sometimes different versions of programs have
> > differences in their config files, which is why you want to stay with
> > the same distro if you're going to NFS mount /home.
> >
> > By "NFS and a shared /home", I suspect you are running a local /home
> > and then having an NFS share as something like
> > /mnt/home-on-main-server, for the purpose of accessing files. If you
> > mount that share as /home, you'll also get all your customizations by
> > way of the hidden files/directories in /home.
>
> Yes, this was my configuration. Within a few days of multiple KDE
> sessions sharing a single $KDEHOME I had problems. Your point on
> versions is well taken and I can't be sure that wasn't a factor. Still,
> I suspect this configuration isn't supportted. For instance, many apps
> store window locations in pixels. And many apps keep files open while
> running, leading to lockouts or races. Have you made a common $KDEHOME
> work for you?
> >
> > Lastly, if some of the systems are old, you might consider using LTSP
> > and booting them as thin clients. That's what I use at home.
>
> I expect config file problems regardless of the disk's location.
I typically use Fluxbox and Gnome (and a little LXDE). I haven't used KDE in years, so I can't comment on it specifically.
I also haven't NFS mounted /home in quite a while. I remember when I did it that different versions of Gnome caused me grief.
I don't really have display problems with LTSP. My smallest thin client has a 12" screen, and the largest is 18". The only thing that gets screwed up, that I've noticed, is if
the screen is too small to fit something that was set up on another screen. For instance, the Gnome panel with lots of launchers. That was only a problem when one of my
screens was defaulting to 800x600 resolution, so there wasn't very much space on it.
Regarding the lockout problem you mentioned, are you logged in on multiple computers at the same time as the same user? There are a few apps I know of that do not like that. Firefox/Iceweasel
for one, and I think OpenOffice as well.
-Rob
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