[Wylug-help] Help please - Anyone running Linux within University of Leeds?

[Jamie Dow]

Hi, newbie here, .... can anyone help?

I'm a member of staff at the University of Leeds, working for an Ethics centre, have given conference papers on the ethics of Free Software and am consequently embarrassed at our University's seemingly total commitment to Microsoft!

I'm wanting to set up a Linux machine to do all that my current Windoze machine does.

I know how to set up a stand-alone PC, and get all the apps, etc.. I use Ubuntu + KDE at home, all v. happily.

BUT I don't know how to set up a Linux machine to do a domain logon, where it validates your username and password centrally, so you don't need a user account set up on each machine you use. And you then get access to your own space on the network drive, and to the shared drives.

Anyone done this? Is it difficult?
(I suspect UoL uses ActiveDomain, but I don't know this for sure.)


If this goes well, then my hope is to pilot running a Linux workstation in a postgrad study centre used by a handful of postgrad ethics students, and so slowly try and wean some other users one-by-one off Microsoft. But obviously I want to test this and make sure it's robust and de-risked on a pilot machine first.
The IT guys at the University have been helpful and not at all difficult. They seem to know the story about what's good about Free Software, and support it on a "best endeavours" basis.

But someone who has done this before would be good to find.

Cheers
Jamie