Re: bluesky admin requests

[David T Hollis <dhollis davehollis com>]

seth vidal wrote:

> 3. make it possible for gconf-editor to be pointed at
> /etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults or gconf.xml.mandatory and ONLY edit those
> settings - it'd be nice to edit some in a nice semi-graphical interface,
> save them, then copy them out to be pushed onto the machine in a %post
> of a kickstart.
>
> 4. ditto of the above with panel and menuconfigs 
>
> 5. I don't know if this is even possible but maybe have some way of
> doing a gconftool-2 --list-all-possible-key-names - so it will print out
> all the possible settings of any kind on any app. Ideally, so I don't
> have to go hunting through lots of code to find out how to make foo
> disabled on the bar applet.
>
> 6. make the mandatory settings possible for things like 'ssl in mail
> servers' or 'enable password checking on screensaver'
>
> 7. while were on the above - make xscreensaver pay attention to gconf
> rather than app-defaults files. and make it possible to disable,
> entirely, certain screensavers from the gconf.xml.mandatory settings
>
>
> -sv
>
>
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>  
You raise a couple of points that get my brain working a bit.  One thing 
that would be really cool (and maybe it's possible with GConf already, 
but I doubt it) would be a way to enforce administrative policies.  Hate 
to bring up the Redmond folks, but System Policies/Group Policies 
whatever you want to call them provide this to provide a way to 
assign/enforce system settings.  My understanding of the under-the-hood 
process is that when a call is made for a registry value such as getting 
the desktop background, the first location is Group Policy 'tree' in the 
registry.  If the value is not defined, than the current user's setting 
is checked.  With this design, even if the user went and hand-edited 
their registry setting, it isn't going to make a difference because the 
policies are checked first. 

It would be great if GConf could support this ability so that admins are 
not editing the package schemas under /etc/gconf/schemas which naturally 
get overwritten on upgrades.  Some way to provide administrative 
policies in a different location that get consulted before reading the 
users specific value would be a great way to enable some real desktop 
administration.

Sorry to be a bit off-topic for this list, but it's something I've 
thought about for a bit...