I’m waiting for the day when these enhanced terminals go full GUI and mouse driven.

I think the desktop is evolving, and may one day become effectively irrelevant, But there is still a long way to go before local compute goes away, which means a local OS is still needed.

In the server world, yes. The desktop is the place that needs to be won over.

I dual boot windows and EndeavourOS. Every 6 to 12 months I make a concerted effort to make the switch 100% but it hasn’t worked out yet. So while Linux is great windows is unavoidable. In this use case I suspect managing Windows tools will be simpler, though I agree that effectiveness next to Linux options won’t be equal.

That was kinda my point. Securing a laptop that will have access to data you want to protect from loss is a near bottomless pit of issues. There comes a point you have to do a risk assessment and apply a level of security that meets your legal requirements and contractual obligations. I’m sure this is all doable on Linux as well but the low cost / easily available tools are mostly for Windows.

I suspect that taking the “secured remote session” approach is probably good enough for their needs. It just needs a client app you can trust to respect the security rules they want to enforce (no screen shots, no screen recording, no data transfers for any sort, etc).

OCRing what is on screen is not really stoppable unless you force them to keep their camera on so you can monitor them 24/7. But if you try hard enough there is usually a way around most security measures.

Either way, they need to decide what the risk impact vs likelihood profile is, and what the business can tolerate. They’ll need to discuss it with legal and data protection folks to assess that.

One tip is to embed records and values that look meaningful, but are unique, into the copy of the data given to the specific employee. This can be used to potentially prove that a data breach was a result of something that employee did. We like to put QUID’s as invisible watermarks in document headers. These trigger our DLP systems which is always funny cos its usually an employee who is leaving and wants to keep something. I love those conversions.

“Easy” from the point of view there a lots of off the shelf tools to help you do it that are easy to understand.

This is the only reliable solution. To expand:

1. Provide a Laptop with Windows on it, because that is easier to lockdown.
2. apply desirable OS lock downs like blocking usb ports prevent storage devices, don’t give the user admin rights, etc.
3. Setup a VPN server (openvpn should do) and configure the laptop with a VPN client. Configure the client so it blocks network connections that don’t go via the VPN. If you want to give them internet access you’ll need a proxy and firewall and DLP solution. At this point it all gets very complex and expensive.

The real answer is you are probably screwed without investing a bunch of time, effort, and cost.

You might get away with more basic security measures if the user has very limited IT knowledge.

I suggest getting legal advice before you give the user access to your data in the manner you intend.

Interesting. I never solved the issue so I’ll give this a go.

Not seen that option, it.might be useful. However, If I move from Plex it needs to be familiar to everyone else in the house. Retraining them is tricky.

Yeah tizen based TV. So no android apps.

I liked Jellyfin when I tested it last year but it had 3 show stoppers for me.

1. Samsung app was flakey and had to be side loaded.
2. Each profile had to use a password and had a full keyboard to enter. Needs a no password option, and a pin pad option.
3. Not everything played successfully.

Have any of these things been fixed?

Interesting. That’s not what happens on mine. I have to actually click into the password box on the primary screen if I want to use that one. Password entry works on both screens so doesn’t really matter which I use, it is just a cosmetic thing that bothers me.

The prompt screen is the same on both monitors. But the typing cursor is in the password box on the secondary monitor.

I had a go at setting the kwin primary using another method but I’ll have a look at copying the settings across like you said.

I’d like that as well.

If you really need one take white list approach. Block everything you don’t need and only open what you need. Have fun finding out what you need.

Me too. I enjoy the @myservername thing as it lets me have one file to maintain lots of servers (Minecraft in my case). I’m sure someone will say other init systems can do the same, but I learnt this one and I like it.

My server has been on Endeavour OS (arch with a gui installer) for at least 18 months. I run updates roughly every 10 days (basically whenever I remember). Never had a problem with it. I dare say it could go horribly wrong at some point so I keep the LTS kernel installed as well just as a fall back.

My main pc is also running Endeavour OS (dual boot with windows 11). Other than having to keep Bluetooth downgraded to support the ps5 dual sense controller, it runs great.

My only gripe is that updates often contain something that forces the kernel rebuild process and so it needs a reboot afterwards.

Every other Linux I’ve run has had some sort of “rebuild to fix” type issue at some point, or had been hard to find good support information for. Endeavour OS has been the most reliable and the easiest to fix and find support for.

Indeed. Steam on Linux does cause issues with filenames. I keep games I run on Linux on an ext4 drive. There isn’t any other choice unfortunately.

I have separate disks so I’m good on the front. The main reasoning is to make Linux my daily as it covers most stuff including my main games. The reason for windows is some video editing in davinci, music stuff which means VSTs, and some games that have anti-cheat. That windows stuff is really only about 15% of my time. I have a windows VM for office when I occasionally must have office, rather than an alternative.

This supports my thinking that ntfs3 is the way to go, or at least worth testing for a while.