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Jump Drive Profiles

  

KDE4 Brainstorm

Score 44%
Downloads:  24
Submitted:  May 26 2008

Description:


Well now I was just thinking using removable storage (USB, FireWire, Bluetooth, or even network connections) to auto load a session or style for the interface.

For example the workstation would sit on a login screen or guest desktop and wait for a user to insert a jump drive.

When they do it automatically loads their desktop off the jump drive and open all applications that they had running.

When a second drive is inserted the desktops merge or split down the middle. (cool special FX, i\'m sure lots of glowing and alpha blending of wallpapers would be going on.). I would say make it one of the four desktops but that wouldn\'t be as cool or visually comprehensible as if the desktop was being shared by profiles. Everything in the end-user market is going towards pretty special effects, I know that Linux is trying to get into this market and that is why i think that this idea is essential in overtaking or at least confronting M$.

I got this idea when i was thinking of setting up a bunch of computers in my house and carrying a jump drive with my profile on it (the problem is there is no way of doing this currently except by having a roaming profile over a network). When I plug it in it would start playing my music and load my desktop and everything I\'ve been working on (maybe an auto save feature so unexpected unplugs are not damaging). Then i could unplug it and move it to the bedroom and work then to the kitchen then the living room, or goto a friends house and plug it in there. applications could be stored on the jump drive so that compatibility isn\'t at risk, or at least make that an option. or a scripting language could be used to launch files in that computers default applications.

And when I talk about the network connection when you enter a wireless network and connect maybe your desktop splits in two and half of it turns into some cool interface that the person programed for their network or brings up network shares/music/ads what have you.

This would work for personal as well as open up a market in business to provide people with workstations at coffee shops or when shopping you could plug your drive in and the stores computer would provide a applet that lets you shop and then save your shopping list to the drive.

This would also allow beginners to get their foot into Linux, by making it easier to save files because you just have to save it to the desktop and it would save to the jump drive. When you insert a blank jump drive a wizard comes up to create a new profile. maybe a virtual pet on the drive. so many possibilities exist and don\'t seem to complex. they just need backing.

PS. I picture a duel profile thing going on and a window split down the middle with styles from both profiles pink on one side and dark green on another. Maybe I\'ll come up with some concept art.

I would love to hear ideas on this, i program a little with very basic programming languages so i cannot contribute except maybe ideas, I would love to put this project into a fruition with the help of others.




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 at it's heart?

 
 by maninalift on: May 27 2008
 
Score 50%

Arrg I wrote this comment and lost it so I'm rewriting it is a rush..,

I think there is a fundamentally interesting idea in here: That of being able to carry around your session and user setting of a flash-drive and quickly load it. The split-screen stuff I don't know about.

Implementing it in KDE4 or at least implementing it in anything like a sensible fashion I think is impossible. However thinking about how it might be done could be worthwhile and could lead to better desktop OS architecture. The ability to query any application for its state save that state and load it into another instance of the application - or even a different application (if firefox is not available load konqueror with the same pages, probably drop some state information as firefox-specific).

is this a question for Xorg to ponder?


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 Re: at it's heart?

 
 by Rolyataylor2 on: May 28 2008
 
Score 50%

I don't really have a grasp on Linux's architecture. therefore i dont know how xwindows would manage "hot swappable" profiles, that is why i was thinking KDE might be able to do it in a layer over a limited user profile.

I don't know if data in the ram is encrypted or if file access can be logged. If file access was logged you could have a loader find what program loaded (and closed) which file and log that to a file otherwise i would think that you might need the programs themselves to log the current states.

The Split screen thing was mainly an idea, similar to having two windows open at the same time but at a wallpaper level. it would be pretty to say the least adding incentive for the everyday consumer to use it (people in the consumer market want pretty, I run a small computer repair business and one of the major concerns of our customer is if the computer "looks good" inside and out), at most it would give a easy drag and drop across drives for the user. functionality wise I think it would be of very little use, when you could just load the settings onto two of the virtual desktops, but i think that the multiple profiles at the same time would be a good idea.

Also if limiting the workstation to only access the files on the jump drives (so no one messes with the Linux box) would provide a base for the visible file structure (and secure the structure on the computer). I would have it set up this way at my house because it would lower the amount of administrative maintenance, also at cafe's and other stores I'm sure this would be the case as well.


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 Re: Re: at it's heart?

 
 by maninalift on: May 28 2008
 
Score 50%

I think that trying to save and later reconstruct on a different computer the state of a program based on what files have been accessed and what is in the RAM is a very bad idea.

As we are both clearly not well informed I had a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_session_manager.

It seems, as I suspected, that sessions are not dealt with in a way that allows them to be moved between systems and that to implement such a system would require modifying the standard by which the applications communicate with the session manager and by implication ALL of the programs themselves.

I think that it would be interesting to consider how this could be done... it might even be worth drafting a standard to see whether in seems practicable but it is not a feature that can be implemented unilaterally by a session manager.


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 How about mounting the disk?

 
 by theriddle on: Jun 11 2008
 
Score 50%

The "host system" is the one that the profile is being loaded onto. The "main system" is the computer the profile is generated on.

As far as I know:
To create the profile, we simply copy the main system's home directory to the disk. To extract the profile, we would mount the profile over the host system's home directory. Since all of the needed data (sessions, data files, etc) is stored in the home directory, this should work without major modification to existing programs.


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 simple

 
 by premierSullivan on: Jun 29 2008
 
Score 50%

its actullly pretty simple, you just loop mount a folder in the thumb drive (or the whole thumb drive) to a "home" folder and then press alt-ctrl-backspace to restart kdm. It should "discover" your usb session and use your usb as a home folder; but be careful, using a usb drive in this way is a sure way to burn it out.

And there is no way to get root privilges using this method.


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