Managing a Multi-User PC
by Samsonite2010 from LinuxQuestions.org on (#52A4Z)
I was not sure where the best place for this post was, but all my machines are running Debian, so figured it may be ok here.
The question may be more generic and valid for other distros too.
Here we go...
I have been using Linux (Xubuntu, then Ubuntu, now Debian) as my daily driver for 5+ years now, but in the past 6+ months I have "upgraded" all of our Windows machines to Debian 10.
Strangely this seemed to get the family using the machines more often despite no experience using Linux - they recognized the Firefox icon and found Libre Office with no direction and off they were going! So happy about that.
The issue for me is that I have now given each user their own login on the "family" PC which is the most powerful one (apart from my own of course) and that is great - they have their own documents and settings, etc.
I am completely unsure of how to administer the machine now and struggling to find the answers - I am probably asking the wrong questions.
So here are my questions about this scenario, in case you wonderful Linux people have some useful pointers to set me on the right path:
- Regarding updates - is it sufficient to just log in as myself (a Sodoer) and run the updates or does this only update it for myself? I ask this because the other users are not sodoers and I do not want them having those rights.
- Is it not possible to administer a single machine effectively without giving all users rights to do updates?
- How difficult (and worthwhile) is it to turn this into a centralized setup where I administer all machines from my machine? Currently there are only 3 machines on the network. I wonder if network administration is better overall - I have no experience in this with Linux, but do with Windows to an extent.
Many thanks for your kind consideration!
The question may be more generic and valid for other distros too.
Here we go...
I have been using Linux (Xubuntu, then Ubuntu, now Debian) as my daily driver for 5+ years now, but in the past 6+ months I have "upgraded" all of our Windows machines to Debian 10.
Strangely this seemed to get the family using the machines more often despite no experience using Linux - they recognized the Firefox icon and found Libre Office with no direction and off they were going! So happy about that.
The issue for me is that I have now given each user their own login on the "family" PC which is the most powerful one (apart from my own of course) and that is great - they have their own documents and settings, etc.
I am completely unsure of how to administer the machine now and struggling to find the answers - I am probably asking the wrong questions.
So here are my questions about this scenario, in case you wonderful Linux people have some useful pointers to set me on the right path:
- Regarding updates - is it sufficient to just log in as myself (a Sodoer) and run the updates or does this only update it for myself? I ask this because the other users are not sodoers and I do not want them having those rights.
- Is it not possible to administer a single machine effectively without giving all users rights to do updates?
- How difficult (and worthwhile) is it to turn this into a centralized setup where I administer all machines from my machine? Currently there are only 3 machines on the network. I wonder if network administration is better overall - I have no experience in this with Linux, but do with Windows to an extent.
Many thanks for your kind consideration!