I run a small business and would like to use Linux for its free naturet. Is there a way to lock down linux using software or a whole distro that would prevent people from doing pretty much anything other than opening a web browser similar to Windows or ChromeOS. I would use ChromeOS, had it not been made by Google as I am not super keen on using something made by big tech.
Edit: This would be for employees and is exclusively about endpoint security, mot enforcing staying on task.
Would this locked-down distro be used by customers or by employees? If it is being used by employees, there is no faster way to be hated than putting unnecessary restrictions on their logins. You don’t want that kind of workplace.
I simply do this:
Make sure they don’t get sudo/root privileges.
Remote mount their home directories (nfs).
Don’t add any restrictions beyond that. It is a waste of time and money.
Control the rest through company policy, usually clauses under the ‘Misuse of company network’ section.
Who cares if employees are browsing tik-tok or whatever if they’ve done all their work? That’s a work-allocation issue. If they haven’t done all their work then that issue will solve itself soon enough.
All good points. Who the heck cares as long as your employees deliver their promised work on time?
I should add that you should however restrict data storage, mandate disk encryption, etc.
Agreed. I manage both of these transparently beyond the employee’s view. All the employee knows is that they have xyz free space to use on their profile.
This /really/ depends on your threat model. “xyz software in their home directory” could easily be “exfil tool that uploads all data employee X has access too, disguised as a meme template generator”
I was more worried on the cybersecurity side rather than the work allocation issue.