Re: Privacy

[linas linas org (Linas Vepstas)]

On Wed, Mar 17, 2004 at 07:01:06PM +0100, Lars Hallberg was heard to remark:
> Linas Vepstas wrote:
> 
> >Hi,
> >
> >Jody, sorry, I'll try to recap succinctly:
> >
> >-- User is running gnome or kde desktop at home, and shares the
> >  desktop with the rest of the family.
> >-- User wants to password-protect thier gnucash data sets (and/or
> >  thier word docs and or thier pornography/or whatever) so that
> >  the rest of the family (or at least the kids) don't get access.
> >
> >-- To acheive the above, logging in/out of gdm/xdm/kdm sessions 
> >  is impractical for a variety of reasons.
> >-- To achieve the above, running multiple x servers & xlock
> >  is impratical/inelegant.
> >-- To acheive the above, throwing the burden on the app writer
> >  leads to hacks and inconsistent GUI's, as each app implements
> >  thier own obscure, hard-to-maintain solution.
> >-- To acheive the above, calling it a "sysadmin issue" or
> >  "solving" it with a HOWTO is impractical/inelegant.
> >
> >Conclude: there needs to be a standardized, architected, 
> >desktop-seal-of-approval'ed way of dealing with granular
> >security levels from the gnome or KDE desktops.
> > 
> >
> I must say I don't realy get the problem with login/logout.

Its stunningly slow.  And its impractical.  If my wife wants to
look at a web page real quick while I go to the bathroom, 
login/logout isn't effective.  If music is playing, a logout 
would stop the music.  

Many/most stateful apps don't quite remember all of thier state.
after shutdown.  e.g. xmms -- will remember the playlist but not the
song.  konqueror sometimes remembers what web page it was displaying,
but doesn't remember the 'history' (i.e. back button stops working
after logout/login).  Shell histories with things like gnome-terminal
stop (up arrow keys won't work).  And IRC history was already 
mentioned ... 

> But, the other way is ether detach/reatachable x-sessions much like vnc. 
> or encrypted filesystems that can be mounted / unmounted.

Well, yes, these were both discussed in a very long thread 
on the gnucash-user mailing list.  BTW, its a thread which I did
not participate in, a thread driven entirely by users talking
to each other.  I'm now acting as messanger: I'm just relaying
what that thread concluded: solutions such as these were deemed 
to complicated, too messy, or otherwise unacceptable.

> Suport for mounting and unmounting and possably creating new encrypted 
> folders could be integrated in the filemanager, or be a standalone app.

This might work.  I'm trying to think of what a newbie user
might find objectionable, and can't really think of anything.
As long as it simple and obvious, and that its clear that the 
folder is unmounted as soon as the last open file in it is closed.
(The user has a reasonable expectation that the data is 'protected'
as long as they are not running thier app).

> That is probably worth while for it's own sake. But realy, what's the 
> problem with logout/login? Losing history in the IM-app - fix the bug in 
> the IM app! Belive Gaim alreddy fix this.

There are dozens or hundreds of broken apps, from konqueror to
gnome-terminal.

> Summary: Fix the bugs and anoyances with loging out / loging in.

Summary: speed: most apps take at least a second to boot; a typical
desktop (my typical desktop) has a half-dozen apps running at any
instant.  With todays technology, it is impractical to fix the apps
to boot in less than a second.  mozilla, the gimp, open office, 
gnucash all take more than 10 seconds. 

--linas


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