Mr Tomasz Jokiel of Porteus team has announced release of Porteus Kiosk 4.1.0, latest stable update of Gentoo based, special purpose GNU/Linux distribution targeting embedded systems like ATM, display panels and advertisement displays.
The Porteus 4.1.0 introduces two new spins which are cloud variant and thin client variant. The purpose of thin client variant is to provide an operating system which can work as a client for existing shared/virtualized desktop infrastructure. This variant offers improved security, simple maintenance activities, reduced hardware cost and reduced energy usage. This is possible because all desktop applications are hosted on a virtualized server. While, the cloud variant of Porteus Kiosk allows to access web based applications and services like Google Apps for Education, Jolicloud, OwnCloud or Dropbox.. etc out of the box. This variant also includes easy configuration options such as bottom panel, volume manager, device mounting utility ..etc.
In addition to this, following are some notable highlights of Porteus Kiosk 4.1.0 release:
The Porteus 4.1.0 introduces two new spins which are cloud variant and thin client variant. The purpose of thin client variant is to provide an operating system which can work as a client for existing shared/virtualized desktop infrastructure. This variant offers improved security, simple maintenance activities, reduced hardware cost and reduced energy usage. This is possible because all desktop applications are hosted on a virtualized server. While, the cloud variant of Porteus Kiosk allows to access web based applications and services like Google Apps for Education, Jolicloud, OwnCloud or Dropbox.. etc out of the box. This variant also includes easy configuration options such as bottom panel, volume manager, device mounting utility ..etc.
In addition to this, following are some notable highlights of Porteus Kiosk 4.1.0 release:
You can find additional information in release notes and change logs published in projects website.
- Kiosk config can be hosted directly on Porteus Kiosk Server - no need to use 3rd party web hosting service anymore. Clients must be configured with 'kiosk_config=' parameter and utilize 'server://config_name' protocol.
- Its possible to define custom persistence level for the guest's home folder.
- Password manager allows remembering logins and passwords to the websites.
- Default search engine for the browser has been changed to the Google. Its still possible to set DuckDuckGo engine if privacy is a top priority.
- Linux kernel used in our system can be tweaked with the help of additional kernel parameters.
- Its possible to control the slide duration (time between loading new image) for the screensaver slideshow.
- Improved 'managed bookmarks' function allows to define the bookmark name.
- DMPS is no longer forced to turn off the monitor after 10 minutes of inactivity and you may set the time after which the monitor goes off.
- Session idle parameter will restart whole session (Xorg) for the variants Cloud and ThinClient.
- Added option to preserve persistent partition, perform a quick format or completely erease the hard drive before the installation is started.
- Enabled bootsplash for the post installation ISO.
- Many other bugfixes and improvements.