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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Reproducing a Microsoft corporate environment on Linux. (lemmy.ca)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Most companies I've worked at where employees had a Microsoft work computers. They were under heavy control, even with admin privileges. I was wondering, for a corporate environment, how employees'Linux desktops could be kept under control in a similar way. What would be an open source or Linux based alternative to the following:

policy control
Software Center with software allow lists
controlled OS updates
zscaler
software detection tool to detect what's been installed and determine if any unallowed software is present
antivirus
VPN

I can think of a few things, like a company having it's own software repos, or using an atomic distribution. There's already open source VPN solutions if course. But for everything else I don't really know what could be used or what setup we could have.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (3 children)

That's the thing. They need some admin access. Especially if they're working in IT and need to do certain tasks that require that privilege.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Allow only those tasks in policykit, make a link with pkexec <tool>?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

The simplest solution is to set up the sudoers file to allow only specific commands your users need. I assume you need more than that, but what kinds of use cases does that solution fail to handle?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Well for example, I work as a DevOps specialist. I need to install certain tools on my system like Docker, kubernetes, virtual machines, etc. Those kinds of tools often require admin privileges to use in development. I may need to modify some files related to those tools in /etc but I shouldn't have access to all files. For example I would want to prevent users from modifying apt or yum repo sources.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I'm not a supporter of the approach of blocking sudo access from capable people (non tech yes), because they can still download and execute binaries as their user. Or go to rescue mode to make modifications. I had to do that myself because of a micro managing IT team. Allowed? No. Allows me to focus on my work and let me be efficient? Yes. Usually this approach also requires a backdoor tool on your device that they install, which is just ridiculous.

Just communicate setup requirements (drive encryption, firewall, AV,...) And have some tool to check the security requirements and rating and this way you can apply proper security policies in the company and respect the user's privacy