Ubuntu
gvfs package

Bug #207072
Comment #74

Comment 74 for bug 207072

Revision history for this message

DrC (drcowsley) wrote on 2008-06-19:

#74

Apologies if I am a) stupid, b) ill- or un-informed c) an extremely un-typical user:

It sounds OK to me provided the availability of an anonymous login doesn't stop me logging in with credentials if that is what I want to do.

In school, we have some very unsophisticated users who just need it to work. If they are pupils, an anonymous login is possibly all they require to get to the resources that have been put 'on a plate' for them by a member of staff.

We also have some very unsophisticated members of staff who just need it to work, but who need write access to the same share. So their credentials must be used. And, sadly, it does have to be the same share. We tried giving staff a back door - but then when they telling students where they had put the resources, they only knew the back door way to them......

We have a sophisticated network, with separate authentication domains for different academic departments. This has the advantage of resilience, with the ability for a department to run in the vacations when other parts of the campus may be without power if major work is being done. There is no one 'server room' the whole campus is dependent on. But in normal circumstances staff and pupils may need access to their shares on domains other than the one their client is joined to.

At present, if the credentials used by a client to log in to the 'home' domain match those required for the foreign domain (user name and password) the connection just works. If the credentials do not match, a dialogue asks for new credentials to be used for the foreign domain. Whilst a pupil does not need any privileges to read-only the public material on a foreign domain, a member of staff will if the intention is to update, edit or add to the material.

So far, we can get away without anonymous login, because pupils can log in with the foreign credentials if we make it necessary. But the problem is visitors - either substitute teachers or visiting pupils from consortium schools, or visitors to out-of-hours events (when there are no technicians on site) who bring their own laptops.

So ideally, we need anonymous access for users who do not have any credentials, and who may be working on a client computer that is not a member of one of our domains.

The current Desktop-Places dialogue "Connect to Server..." is a bit clunky, but would be OK if the mounts could be made persistent. If the mount has to be redone each time the client reboots, my unsophisticated staff will need a facility similar to that in Windows, which will remount a share in the same way it did last time, if they are to enjoy the delights of Ubuntu.

Sorry if all this is stating the obvious, but I would rather look silly now, than find out I should have said so earlier!

Thanks

Chris

Apologies if I am a) stupid, b) ill- or un-informed c) an  extremely un-typical user:

It sounds OK to me provided the availability of an anonymous login doesn't stop me logging in with credentials if that is what I want to do.

In school, we have some very unsophisticated users who just need it to work.   If they are pupils, an anonymous login is possibly all they require to get to the resources that have been put 'on a plate' for them by a member of staff.

We also have some very unsophisticated members of staff who just need it to work, but who need write access to the same share.  So their credentials must be used.  And, sadly, it does have to be the same share.  We tried giving staff a back door - but then when they telling students where they had put the resources, they only knew the back door way to them......

We have a sophisticated network, with separate authentication domains for different academic departments.  This has the advantage of resilience, with the ability for a department to run in the vacations when other parts of the campus may be without power if major work is being done.  There is no one 'server room' the whole campus is dependent on.   But in normal circumstances staff and pupils may need access to their shares on domains other than the one their client is joined to.

At present, if the credentials used by a client to log in to the 'home' domain match those required for the foreign domain (user name and password) the connection just works.   If the credentials do not match, a dialogue asks for new credentials to be used for the foreign domain.  Whilst a pupil does not need any privileges to read-only the public material on a foreign domain, a member of staff will if the intention is to update, edit or add to the material.

So far, we can get away without anonymous login, because pupils can log in with the foreign credentials if we make it necessary.  But the problem is visitors - either substitute teachers or visiting pupils from consortium schools, or visitors to out-of-hours events (when there are no technicians on site) who bring their own laptops.