Guest Session is going to he a hot feature in Ibex!

[PryGuy]

The GNOME user switching applet now provides an extra entry for starting a guest session. This creates a temporary password-less user account with restricted privileges; it cannot access any regular user's home directory, or permanently store data. This is sufficiently safe to lend your laptop to someone else for a quick email check, or using it as a surf station for guests in your house.The Source (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IntrepidIbex/TechnicalOverview#New%20features%20in%20Intrepid)

[Canis familiaris]

I dunno whether it would be 'hot' but would be a useful feature to have though.

[PryGuy]

I dunno whether it would be 'hot' but would be a useful feature to have though.Well, it's gonna be hot for me as I have to share my PC with other people frequently... Yet, it's gonna be ideal for internet cafes....

[Dremora]

To tell you the truth, I was wondering why nobody but OS X and Windows XP and Vista had this, I mean XP shipped in 2001 so the idea has been around...

Wonder if it'll be roughly the same as Windows' guest account, no downloads and such...

[PryGuy]

Sorry if I'm wrong, but:
1. Guest account in XP is not enabled by default
2. You can't log in into the Guest account in XP by default even if you enable it
3. Guest account in XP won't let you hide home folders of other users
4. Guest account in XP will act as a normal limited account if you'll log into it (store data, etc)

The Ubuntu idea is to make a LiveCD thing on an installed system.

[BlueSkyNIS]

Well, it's gonna be hot for me as I have to share my PC with other people frequently... Yet, it's gonna be ideal for internet cafes....

I read somewhere it's not meant to be used in internet cafes because the security in Guest account is not at the top. Its primary purpose is, for example, to let you borrow someone your laptop to check mail or something in the net in your presence.

[PryGuy]

Hey, BlueSky! Anyway, think we'll wait and see how it will be. Idea looks cool so far!

[billgoldberg]

I don't know.

I sounds good, but in reality I'm not going to do it.

[BlueSkyNIS]

Hey, BlueSky! Anyway, think we'll wait and see how it will be. Idea looks cool so far!

Hi PryGuy,

Yes it will be a cool feature. :)

You can also check list of New Features here (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=886980).

[Sealbhach]

It will help let other people try out Linux. Very good feature.


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[VitaLiNux]

It will help let other people try out Linux. Very good feature.


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+1
Good feature if you want to share your pc with your friends or if you have a business and you have computers around for your customers to check their e-mails, do some chatting, some surfing, etc.

[toupeiro]

guest accounts can be insecure...

I hope they don't intend to give a guest account the same sudo rights as a full account.

[SunnyRabbiera]

guest accounts can be insecure...

I hope they don't intend to give a guest account the same sudo rights as a full account.

Not according to the proposal.
My biggest issue with this is the instability of the user switch applet, it always gave me isasues.

[Superkoop]

Neat! A feature that I would never use! (user switcher applet has always had problems, that seem to never get fixed and just sit around in LP)

[clinux]

This is a great feature that can be used in schools. Here, they use deepfreeze to prevent students from changing files on windows.

[lukjad]

I both like and dislike the idea. I like it for the sake of usability, but I don't like it for the sake of safety. I hope that it can easily be disabled if some nosy relatives come over.

[Canis familiaris]

I am pretty confident it would be disabled. I hope that it is disabled by default.

[sydbat]

But wouldn't it be just as easy, and much safer (because you set the security yourself), to create an account like this for "casual use"? Sounds a bit...um...like creating a Windows-type user base...one that does not think before using a computer (not meant as a flame, more of an observation of how Microsoft has socially engineered technology use).

[days_of_ruin]

I don't see how it would be a security risk.It can't permanently store
files and it can't access any other users data.Its like a live cd
only faster and with less power.

[PryGuy]

Yep, this sounds exactly like LiveCD on an installed system!

[schauerlich]

The Source (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IntrepidIbex/TechnicalOverview#New%20features%20in%20Intrepid)

OS X has something like this as of 10.5

[lswb]

Nice idea for its intended purpose, I guess, but it could be done with most any version of linux now, by creating an account with limited priveledges, restricted or no use of shell, maybe put home directory for this user on a ram disk, etc.

[frup]

The practical side:

16 year old male has been looking at porn, every letter of the alphabet when entered in to the address bar will show some kind of porn site, his mother comes and asks to check her emails... He can not clean the browser then and there and so simply switches to guest mode so she can surf in peace.

lol

It's a shame his mother is not technically savvy enough to control him properly. He'll grow up damaged lol.

[kernelhaxor]

mine is a personal desktop .. nobody else uses it .. so it makes no difference to me at all .. I wudn't even enable it

[grossaffe]

I made a guest account for my dad's computer running Hardy. I found the coding somewhere to make an account's password nothing, so anyone can log into that account without a password. I also restricted the account's privileges to avoid any security issues with having an account without a password.

[PryGuy]

The practical side:

16 year old male has been looking at porn, every letter of the alphabet when entered in to the address bar will show some kind of porn site, his mother comes and asks to check her emails... He can not clean the browser then and there and so simply switches to guest mode so she can surf in peace.

lol

It's a shame his mother is not technically savvy enough to control him properly. He'll grow up damaged lol.LOL You've got it... ;)

[Ozor Mox]

I should find this feature quite useful, since I already create a limited guest account on my computers so that other people can use them if they need to. I could just let them use my account, but I like guest accounts better because that way I can just give them the computer and leave it to them, knowing they can't break anything and whatever they can change stays under their account anyway.

[aaaantoine]

What if the guest has a USB stick with some Word doc that they want to make changes to? Can they plug in the USB stick and make their changes in OpenOffice.org without any headaches (any OO.o incompatibilities aside)?

If not, this feature is a waste in my opinion.

[nkri]

I think this'll be great for someone wanting to try out an Ubuntu system without the laginess of a live CD:)

[billgoldberg]

I just give people full access to my computer.

None of them now anything about linux, so they can't do harm.

And if they do, I happy I have something to fix.

They are only on it to play some music when visiting, or browsing the web.

lol

I trust my friends, or else I wouldn't let them on my pc.

The only thing that can happen is they change the background to some unpleasant picture. :p

[Master Chief]

Whatever the reason for using this new feature might be for you, or to not use it at all; it is great to have something like this when you need it, and this without any additional/mandatory steps.

I won't be using it myself, because I don't need it, but it might come in handy for other people so yah for Ubuntu!

[swoll1980]

How stable is alpha 4. I'm thinking about installing it. I started using Hardy in alpha 4, and never had a crash. Is Itrepid on par with this?

[Master Chief]

Pretty decent, but like the saying goes for all Alpha software: "Don't use it in a production environment".

[yanom]

Whenever i hit the guest button in ibex the screen goes black and I have to hard-boot.