The scope of each project was different with Liverpool Central library having a budget for touch screens and integrated desk consoles for public use. These were industrial strength, locked down units and they had a vision of offering IT services with a combination of touch screen and easy-clean keyboards.

Walthamstow Library had an approach which included using a locked down PC, rather than a special case or desk cabinet. The Hotel Lobby solution was also a PC in a box with a standard keyboard and mouse which kept the costs down. The plan was to dispose of mice and keyboards when they became dirty rather than use a more exspensive purpose built public keyboard.

The common denominator with  these solutions was Windows. All three kiosk services needed Windows to run CD-ROM or other local or network application services. It is possible to lock down windows and manage remotely and these were NT and XP installations which offered a secure network login. The challenge was support and configuration of these remote services, which due to public exposure were often badly abused by earthlings and not given the kind of care and attention you would expect from an office PC. How many times have you walked passed a public service PC to discover a blue screen of death or a failure notice? This was a frequent issue, especially on remote unattended sites. I can’t accurately measure the reliability of the services delivered because I did not get long term exposure to the environments after go-live. However I do remember that remote support was time consuming and sometimes unreliable.

Linux Kiosk Computer Configuration
I have just started reviewing current options for Kiosk and public service PC’s and it looks like Linux has matured, offering some specific tools to help sys admins lock down services. There is no requirement for local application installation because the application services I am planning are served by browser, so the stability and security of using Linux for a browser only public computer is attractive.

I have started to review the Kiosk framework from KDE, built in to batten down the hatches on a public computer. You can restrict down just about everything, down to individual menu items and control updates and changes remotely. The KDE Kiosk Admin tool is a point and click GUI for restricting public SUSE desktops which makes the experience of locking down the system easier for non console users. http://extragear.kde.org/apps/kiosktool/

You can find further technical reading on the KDE Kiosk here: http://enterprise.kde.org/articles/kiosk-lp.php and there is a similar article for Ubuntu: http://users.telenet.be/mydotcom/howto/linuxkiosk/ubuntu01.htm