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Idea #11658: User account mobility

bug This idea is a duplicate of Idea #5282: save personal settings and configuration files on personal usb stick.
Written by asdasd the 30 Jul 08 at 17:38. Category: Accessibility. Related project: Nothing/Others. Status: New
Rationale
Provide mobility for user accounts (UAs) through a USB drive or the network. Ability to enable/disable this feature.

Suppose I have a perfectly customized personal UA on my computer (A), and I wish to use a friend's computer (B). Instead of, on computer B, having to:

1) use a guest account,
2) use my friend's account or
3) create a new account;

and thereby forego all the comfort and customization and everything else associated with my UA on computer A, I should be able to simply transfer my UA from computer A into, say a USB pendrive, plug it into computer B, and have it prompt me to logon to my account. Better yet, I should be able to transfer any number of user accounts I want into the USB drive, and when plugged in, computer B allows me to logon to any one of them. Syncing with computer A would be necessary in order save any changes made to the UAs while on computer B, unless the UAs are no longer specific to computer A and are simply stored on the USB drive! This is probably one key idea: having UAs installed on removable storage, independent of any one computer.

Alternatively (or additionally), using perhaps Zeroconf, computer B could detect computer A's UAs (even UAs on plugged in USB drives) and provide the option to logon to any of them. Syncing in this case might not be necessary, as any changes to the account can be saved directly on computer A through the network.

Result: Set up your user account once, and you have the ability to access it on any computer, either automatically through a LAN or with a USB pen! Wallpaper, GUI configuration, email accounts, documents and what-not, all there, anywhere! (yay, my own slogan :)

67
votes
closed
Solution #1: Auto-generated solution of idea #11658
Written by asdasd the 30 Jul 08 at 17:38.
Ubuntu Brainstorm was updated in January 2009. Since the idea #11658 was submitted before this update, its rationale and solution are not separated. Please vote accordingly, and if you have the necessary rights, please separate the rationale from the solution. Thanks!

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Comments
Bender2k14 wrote on the 30 Jul 08 at 19:38
This idea is similar to roaming profiles in Windows.

asdasd wrote on the 30 Jul 08 at 20:06
Not quite. Windows needs a server to register the roaming profiles. I mentioned Zeroconf thinking precisely that no server should be required to do this -- a peer-to-peer model that is automatic, instead of server-client approach which most likely needs specific configuration.
And it really shouldn't depend on a network either, hence the USB pendrive suggestion.

Bender2k14 wrote on the 30 Jul 08 at 20:16
But the functionality is similar. That is what you are looking for, right?

asdasd wrote on the 30 Jul 08 at 20:31
I suppose, only better :) (Can you tell I don't like Windows?)

toucher5 wrote on the 31 Jul 08 at 00:39
Thats a great idea. Maybe even an option for carrying your home folder as well via a check box. This should also enclude some encryption. Maybe even this kind of encryption that is on this Jumpdrive: http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/security/99f1/

Bender2k14 wrote on the 31 Jul 08 at 00:44
@asdasd

Who here does?...isn't that why we all use Ubuntu ;)

However, it is still wise to consider the strengths of Windows, Mac, and other operating systems.

kf7xm wrote on the 11 Aug 08 at 19:18
+1. I want something like what Foxmarks does
for Firefox, only for everything.



notyetroot wrote on the 12 Aug 08 at 22:07
I like this idea! It would be useful for workstations especially.

andruk (Idea reviewer) wrote on the 11 Sep 08 at 03:50
Agreed, there should be something like a pack-n-go option, or maybe mirroring the ~/ directory to a specific flash drive when it's plugged in.

+1

andruk (Idea reviewer) wrote on the 11 Sep 08 at 03:51
There's simply no way, though, that if you are a sudoer on your computer that you should be a sudoer on another computer. That's an obvious security flaw. I do think that that is controlled on a per-machine basis, though, so it should be okay.

Falconix wrote on the 3 Dec 08 at 10:38
I like this idea, I was just about to write a idea my self about the same thing, but I found your idea first.


Of course when you plug in your USB memory into computer B you shouldn't be able to run any binaries which you can store on the memory.

So where to start.
Encryption
Mobile UA, username and hashed password on USB?
Mounting process, shouldn't conflict with other user acounts on the host system

sayakb (Brainstorm admin) wrote on the 3 Dec 08 at 13:15
Marked as a dupe of #5282


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