I run a small business and would like to use Linux for its free naturet. Is there a way to lock down linux using software or a whole distro that would prevent people from doing pretty much anything other than opening a web browser similar to Windows or ChromeOS. I would use ChromeOS, had it not been made by Google as I am not super keen on using something made by big tech.

Edit: This would be for employees and is exclusively about endpoint security, mot enforcing staying on task.

  • ChojinDSL
    8•1 year ago

    Back when internet cafés were still a thing, a common practice was to have a bunch of thin clients that would have no local storage and have them boot over the network. The environment would get wiped every time someone logged off.

    You could do something similar. Cheap machines with no local storage. Bios settings that prevent any sort of booting from usb sticks and protect the bios with a password.

    Projects like LTSP are designed for this.

    You could boot the machines in a read only mode and just have the browser available. Perhaps also only allowing sharing of files through something like nextcloud where you could theoretically also lock down what type of files are allowed. Or at least be able to inspect the files that people are storing.