this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Hello everyone, my company (our department is of around 150+ developers/machine learning people/researchers) is currently considering switching from Windows to Gnu+Linux for company devices (as in the machines we use in our daily work) and we are currently in the phase of collecting requirements. I'm not in charge of the process or involved in the decision phase, but as an enthusiast I'm curious about it. We handle data and other sensitive resources, so the environment should remain managed by the IT department (what's possible to install, VPNs, firewalls, updates and similar). What do companies generally use in this kind of scenario? I'm assuming they generally do some stuff with either Canonical or Red Hat, but are there alternatives? Are there ways to do something that works across distributions by using flatpak or the nix package manager? What are your experiences?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

We're running Linux on the vast majority of PCs at my job. We used to run Lubuntu, but switched to Debian. You can use pam_mount so user folders are mounted from a server at login, to create a "roaming profiles" environment. But there really isn't a great solution for laptop users that might be away from the office.

If you do use pam_mount, don't mount their entire home folder. That will end up throwing a bunch of stuff on the server, like chrome temporary internet files, and their .config folder, that just aren't needed on the server and will slow everything down. Just mount their individual Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Videos, Desktop, etc. folders.

We're a small business, we don't have any Enterprise Support or anything like that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Just mount their individual Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Videos, Desktop, etc. folders.

You could use Seafile (custom server and client) or something like NextCloud (actually just WebDav server and client) to sync those folders. Works perfectly on laptops and if you sync, you don't need a good network all the time. (And since the laptop is a personal devices, you only sync 1 user or maaaybe a small number)

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

Have you considered git for the roaming profile files/settings?