Linux as workstation (multiple logins, DCOP problem)

[David Legg]

On Thu, 2003-02-27 at 15:52, Timco Visser wrote:
> The idea
> was that in this way everybody has access to all
> projects that people are working on. Now they also
> want to have one common log in for every system
> (including the systems which I have been able to
> upgrade to linux).
> I hope I can convince them that it's not so bad to use
> your own login, while still being able to see what
> everybody is doing. (It will also be a lot easier to
> keep track of who has done what etc. So I don't see
> their objections.)

Mmmm... You're right here so you should trust your judgement and push it
through. For any system you should have authenticated logons for every
single user. This will be much easier for you to track who has
authentication and who can do and is doing what as you have pointed out.
Try and discuss this and get people onside, and if not find out why! If
you have a particular group of users (even if it's everyone) you should
give them equal access to resources as you see fit so I don't see this
argument either. If you want to implement some kind of authentication
for user groups later, doing things this way will make it much easier.
You can bet your life that when management ask you to set something up
in one way they will then ask you to do something later which is what
you wanted to do to start with! Try and get it right from day one.

Users generally ask for single logons because they can't be bothered to
remember passwords and they usually hand them around on post-it notes.
With this you don't know where these passwords are getting mailed to and
it presents a security and administration nightmare. It is your job as
an IT person to resist this and implement things in a sensible way that
you can keep track of. I'm sorry, but using a generic logon for every
user (unless they are guests or anonymous) is an extremely horrid and
lazy way of doing things.

This is more of a generic description that applies to all types of
systems rather than anything KDE specific.

Good luck, as you seem to be working towards some good stuff here.

David



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