discuss: Thread: Proposal: Surfstation-mini-HOWTO

Hello,
I am just setting up a Linux-Box to act as a public Web-Terminal and was
wondering, if I should write a mini-Howto describing the process.

The only document I could find describing a similar work is the Kiosk-Howto,
although is rather outdated and the aim there is to restrict access completely
to a specific website instead of allowing normal use of the browser and only
securing the box against the User (saving files, changing settings etc).

Do you think there is demand for such a document?

How should it be called? (Since English is not my mother-tongue I don't know
what an English-speaking person would look for.)

wolfgang

On Wed 02 Jul 03, 10:27 AM, Wolfgang Fuschlberger ####@####.#### said:
> Hello,
> I am just setting up a Linux-Box to act as a public Web-Terminal and was
> wondering, if I should write a mini-Howto describing the process.
 
hi wolfgang,

my LUG just put up a linux based web terminal at a local store too.  we
found the kiosk howto very outdated as well.

not that it's completely useless and should be mothballed... but it
simply doesn't cover anything recent.  for instance, IIRC, it doesn't
mention the word mozilla once because the last update was when mozilla
segfaulted on a minute by minute basis.  last update was something like
3 or 4 years ago.

no howto should go more than a year without SOME kind of update.
anything.

> The only document I could find describing a similar work is the Kiosk-Howto,
> although is rather outdated and the aim there is to restrict access completely
> to a specific website instead of allowing normal use of the browser and only
> securing the box against the User (saving files, changing settings etc).
> 
> Do you think there is demand for such a document?
 
yes.  we sure could've used it.  putting up kiosks is a very good way
for LUGs to get involved in linux advocacy.    :)

> How should it be called? (Since English is not my mother-tongue I don't know
> what an English-speaking person would look for.)

i just briefly scanned the kiosk howto again.  the author states there
are many types of kiosks, and he'd like to hear / collaborate with other
people to expand the howto.

i think it would be best if you could contact the author and try to work
out some kind of collaboration rather than having howtos called "the
kiosk howto" and "the other type of kiosk howto".   ;-)

to be honest, since the howto hasn't been updated in 3 years, the author
might just tell you "please take it off my hands".

pete

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On Wed, 02 Jul 2003, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> On Wed 02 Jul 03, 10:27 AM, Wolfgang Fuschlberger ####@####.#### said:

[snip]

> > How should it be called? (Since English is not my mother-tongue I don't know
> > what an English-speaking person would look for.)
> 
> i just briefly scanned the kiosk howto again.  the author states there
> are many types of kiosks, and he'd like to hear / collaborate with other
> people to expand the howto.
> 
> i think it would be best if you could contact the author and try to work
> out some kind of collaboration rather than having howtos called "the
> kiosk howto" and "the other type of kiosk howto".   ;-)

I contacted the author (thanks to google I found his actual email-address).
He said he would not update the Kiosk-Howto in the future and I could change
it and - if necessary - write it new from scratch.

If there are no objections I will take over the Kiosk-Howto.

wolfgang

On Fri, Jul 04, 2003 at 09:37:54AM +0200, Wolfgang Fuschlberger wrote:
> On Wed, 02 Jul 2003, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> > On Wed 02 Jul 03, 10:27 AM, Wolfgang Fuschlberger ####@####.#### said:
> 
> [snip]
> If there are no objections I will take over the Kiosk-Howto.
Thanks.  From what's been said, it sorely needs rewriting.
			David Lawyer