Linux and Public Access Computing?

An Anonymous Coward asks: "The Seattle Community Technology Alliance is a non profit, federally funded, public/private project that supports community technology centers in the Seattle area. We are interested in moving our public workstations from Win 2000 to Linux. In order to do this, we need good multi-lingual options and the abiltiy to create 'guest accounts' that prevent users from changing settings (to provide a consistent environment for users). What are the best tools for multi-user Linux labs? Should we use KDE? Gnome? How do we keep users from changing settings? We are eager to start experimenting, but would appreciate expert advice on starting points!"

Comments

Wish I had your e-mail address

[Allnighterking]

If I did I'd tell you to contact another Gov funded project called SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center) They have without a doubt the best linux setup for lab work you will ever see. The tools etc of course are available to you, free of charge, and the people who work there are more than just helpful. the URL is http://www.slac.stanford.edu/ to start checking them out. They run 2000 server clusters and are fast approaching 1 petabyte of data. So they do know there stuff. AND it's a Linux house to boot. Sometimes Gov funded orgs do it right and these are some people who prove this is true.

Check out jwz's solution.

[immanis]

Jamie Zawinski of mozilla and xscreensaver fame owns a nightclub in San Francisco called DNA Lounge.

He installed IRC, telnet, ssh and web enabled diskless linux kiosks for just this purpose. His code is available, as well as instructions on how he did it. It may give you a good place to start.