If you have read some of my recent Linux posts, you may remember I volunteer here in Albuquerque at two non-profit Community Centers, helping to keep their Laptops running from week to week. I have been doing this for almost a year now, and it has been a very rewarding experience with a lot of learning on the side. I installed PCLinuxOS as a first step recovery as Linux has so much to offer with little downside for the casual user, and PCLinuxOS is the cream of the crop for instant usability.

PCLinuxOS is an excellent distribution for everyone, especially for people who have never used Linux. The LXDE Desktop is similar to Windows reducing a casual users learning curve. Combine the two into PCLinuxOS – LXDE and it is an instant hit. Everything the Community Center’s need is included on one CD. The included programs are well thought out, and Open Office Org install is available at the click of a button, completing the setup.

If you use PCLinuxOS – LXDE, have kids, or other curious neophytes using your computer the changes below will help you. I created one user account for all users which I named, ‘guest’. I set the guest account to auto-login. Most users use Firefox, or type a paper, printing what they want to keep or sending their work to their online email account, so requirements are fairly simple.

I have done a lot learning from almost a year ago to present some of which will help you if you share your computer. With the user account I want to change logged on, the first change I made was to the PCLinuxOS LXDE desktop.

While the desktop is carefully thought out and wonderful for individual use, it is too much for a multiuser environment. The Network Icon, Terminal, File System, Quick Launch Toolbar Icons, and Internet Connection Icon are troublesome to curious users who know little about how computers function. Removing icons was the first change to the desktop.

After the desktop icons were removed, I found user focus turned to the Quick Launch Bar Icons on the bottom left of the screen. All those colorful Icons must do something fun, and the curious clicked and played with them as they could. At first I removed them all, then discovered that users had become accustomed to clicking on the Firefox icon, and some did not know how to start Firefox using the Menu. I gave in and crafted a safe, basic icon set.

The latest problem is with the internet connection. The Community Center’s connections are a pipe dream away from being a T1 connection. It would be a wonderful improvement to get to cable speed. Put eight or ten users on a slow connection and everything to and from the internet slows to a crawl.

I could imagine the thought process as every week as I restored wifi connections. ‘Wow, this sure is slow, there must be something wrong with this laptop. Let me click on this Internet Connection thingy and see if I can fix it.’ A few clicks later and the laptop is connected to an unmade connection, and the internet is now one one connection faster for everyone else in the room.

To begin modifying a user normal user account to a mostly harmless account I made the following changes:

If you installed Open Office Org, or you plan not to, open Synaptic Package Manager, and  remove ‘getopenoffice’ from your system. This removes ‘Get Open Office’ from your Desktop and Menu. If you installed Open Office, the icon on the Desktop and label in the Menu causes confusion for users, and headaches for you.

One of the buttons on the Quick Launch Taskbar is a button to launch the PCLinuxOS Control Center. Click on the button and enter root’s password. You should now be in the PCLinuxOS Control Center. If you are not, close the window and start over.

Click on the word ‘System’ on the left. Click on ‘Manage users on System’ on the bottom of the screen. Click on the user who’s account you want to dumb down, in my case, ‘guest’ and the account name and line will be highlighted.

Click on the Edit Icon on top. Next, click on the Tab ‘Groups’ This is where the real power of Linux shows itself. From here you control almost everything any user can do. I un-clicked the boxes dialout, and users. This creates a new group named guest which guest is a member of. The boxes audio, cdrom, cdwriter, floppy, lp (printer), polkituser, user (user’s new group), and video are all checked. You can uncheck them to deny your user from using any or all of them. You are done with this screen and can exit out. When your user logs in, they will not find the internet connection icon. If you leave the Networking Icon on the desktop, it will require root’s password to open.

Right click on any of the Quick Launch Taskbar Icons on the bottom left. If you clicked correctly an option for “Application Launch Bar” Settings is the first choice. Click on Application Launch Bar.

On the Settings Screen is three columns. The left side contains apps that are on the Quick Launch Bar. The right side contains apps that can be added to the Launch Bar. The center is the add, remove, move up, or move down buttons. From here you can customize what is contained on the Quick Launch Bar, or remove all programs if you so choose. Linux is all about choices. If you are admin of your system, you can control the choices.

There are many more options available to control, limit, and otherwise manage users of your computer while running PCLinuxOS on your computer. A short period of exploring and changing settings can prevent headaches later, and like myself, you will get to learn something in the process. If you are making changes always write down what you have done on a piece of paper so you know how to undo it if it does not have the intended effect.