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Journal jawtheshark's Journal: Major gripe with Ubuntu 6

Journal by jawtheshark
Linux is a multi-user system and has been since the beginning, yet Ubuntu (and many other distributions) make it very unclear how to change the default menu structure of their graphical interface.

No, I don't want Evolution, and yes I need Thunderbird. I know now that Evolution is pain to uninstall under Gnome, so I decided to hide it simply.

Alas every change I do to these things in the graphical interface is for the user only. Fine, if you know that the other people on the machine are capable of choice and configure their environment accordingly. Very bad, if the machine is for non-Linux users.

My changes need to be system-wide, not user-only.

Sure, by now I found out about /usr/share/applications which gives me full control of the menu structure. Alas, I have no idea how to remove icons from the Panel itself (similar to the icons next to the Windows start button), nor do I know how to convince Gnome to take Thunderbird as standard email *systemwide*.

I should be able to set my choices up for every user before even creating the user. Sure, I could just populate /etc/skel, but that's a fucking hack. Those configurations it uses comes from somewhere, and I want to know where. /usr/share/applications was a nice find, but all this stuff is very badly documented and google turns up the user-only changes.

Did everyone forget that Linux is a true multi-user environment?

[Edit]
CorporateUbuntu looks interesting.
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Major gripe with Ubuntu More

Major gripe with Ubuntu

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  • is there a way to add a config file to /etc/skel that sets up new users the way you want?

    • Yes, I'm pretty sure that I can setup one user and copy over the files required from that user. Then, I create the other users and at their creation /etc/skel will be copied over. This is completely equivalent to copying over a "user profile" in Windows to the "Default User" folder in "C:\Documents And Settings".

      The risk is, that somewhere a username or a full-path is used. That fucks things up. On Windows I know this happens if you run iTunes in the source user, copy over the profile and log in with

      • at least in linux, the config files are usually plain text. maybe it will work if you search for /home/username/ and replace with ~/.

        • I'm sure that Linux config files are cleaner and yes everything is plain text. A definite advantage, if you know which files to modify ;-)

  • I just make my own menus and use those instead; much easier :-) As for the environment, you could always setup one you like, and then copy it into new people's home directory (a quick find on various gnome config files shows only a few that seem to have my username hardcoded in them)

    • Okay, that's all fine and dandy... It works for one user. This is not my case. The "copy into new people home directory" is the /etc/skel technique. I'm not a Linux newbie at all. I know the techniques, the directory layouts, many best policies...

      The case here is that I have to choose options for people that have no clue and as such need the limited option way. If I think Thunderbird is the way to go, Evolution may not be visible at all and may not be invokable at all. (Except over the command line,

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