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Can you install a Debian LiveCD to a computer?
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Can you install a Debian LiveCD to a computer?

user123user123 Member
edited March 2016 in Help

What would be the best option for running a standardized desktop environment in a real-world setting with multiple computers where OS settings remain constant (i.e. users can't touch them)? The computers are only used to access a web-based application through Firefox. Would something like a Debian LiveCD (+/- persistence ) be best? Windows 10 (OEM) is currently installed on all the computers and locking it down seems challenging. From that, once the LiveCD has been customized as desired, is it possible to clone that installation to the desktop hard drive so that you don't need to boot from an external device? Is there also a way to sync user accounts over a LAN so that once a user is added to a specific computers, it is synchronized with the other desktops? Thanks!

ETA: The goal is to create a standardized set of computers for accessing a web-based portal with changing users (all with their own unique accounts). It would be behind a router and (if going with the Debian option) would have UnattendedUpdates, LXDE, and IPTables installed. The desktops are i5 64-bit with >4GB RAM.

ETA2: TBH, I suspect Debian may be easier to manage, but am not sure what to do about synchronizing user accounts between multiple installations.

Comments

  • try using debian

    thx

  • windows
    thx.

  • trvztrvz Member

    Chrome OS. You'll want to search for "chromium os build" in Google.

  • Do you really need a full desktop to do this? Perhaps create a Firefox user/group. Actually, I'd be surprised if there isn't a Linux client ready made for you out there. Perhaps one of these.

  • user123user123 Member
    edited March 2016

    @Ole_Juul said:
    Do you really need a full desktop to do this? Perhaps create a Firefox user/group. Actually, I'd be surprised if there isn't a Linux client ready made for you out there. Perhaps one of these.

    That's a good point, thanks :). I was thinking about a kiosk-type OS setup, but users may need to be able to read PDFs and word docs. I also want people to feel accountable for their actions, which I think would be better served by having each person log in to their own account. I wonder if there is a way to host a single virtual system disk image on a networked PC and be able to push it out over the LAN to all the other networked PCs. I remember that Ghost back in the 90s used to support system cloning over the network like this, though we had to manually set up each computer to pull the specified image.

    ETA: The browser must be Firefox ESR, though I'm not yet certain if it has to be a specific (older) version.

  • I think that a kiosk-type Linux distro running Firefox would be a great option as long as there is some way to have a partition on the PC left "unfrozen" (i.e. users are able to save files there and not have them wiped upon restart). As admin, I should also be able to customize Firefox (i.e. add Greasemonkey scripts). Can you guys recommend anything like this? I guess I'm looking for a free (or less expensive) way to achieve what Faronics Deep Freeze does and I'm not particular about what OS is used.

  • hardgamershardgamers Member
    edited March 2016

    try fog project - https://fogproject.org/ ...

    or if you going to commercial theres several options :

    desktop management : example symantec altiris

    virtual desktop infrastructure : xendesktop or vmware horizon suite ( vmware horizon suite have 2 kind of software , horizon and mirage ) ..

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