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Hello, I am a newbie to Linux and In the first place I want to thank you for this forum and your time. I have been using PlayOnLinux for the last four months and I think that this is an incredible software. Nonetheless, I have a suggestion in order to prevent the accindentally uninstallion of the programs, as I have had the bad luck to discover when my son uninstalled all the software installed with too much effort by my side. I think that it would be a good idea to put a password protection to the options of install, unistall and configure the programs, or at least have the chance to hide the buttons or the options to uninstall them. Thank you very much for your attention, and please have a wonderful day.

That's what having distinct users on the system, and using backups are for, if you ask me...

 

Longer explanation:

All PlayOnLinux state, including installed programs, are saved in ~/.PlayOnLinux, so in other words are considered user data ("documents", if you want).

There's more than one way to alter them, including opening a terminal and typing "rm -rf ~/.PlayOnLinux" and all PlayOnLinux state is gone.

Same for other applications by the way.

So, if you value your documents, including PlayOnLinux installed programs, don't provide unrestricted access to them, create other Linux users on your system.

Edited by petch

 

That's what having distinct users on the system, and using backups are for, if you ask me...

 

Longer explanation:

All PlayOnLinux state, including installed programs, are saved in ~/.PlayOnLinux, so in other words are considered user data ("documents", if you want).

There's more than one way to alter them, including opening a terminal and typing "rm -rf ~/.PlayOnLinux" and all PlayOnLinux state is gone.

Same for other applications by the way.

So, if you value your documents, including PlayOnLinux installed programs, don't provide unrestricted access to them, create other Linux users on your system.

 

Quote from petch

I am sorry but I have seen no software with so many options to uninstall what you have done, in fact there is a big button that makes posible uninstalling with one click, and in the left down side also appears the uninstall option. Again a third option when the configure button is press. My son has no account in my computer, my son has his own computer, but he is ten years old and he is using PlayOnLInux to play games only. He has a disability and he press sometimes in the incorrect button, and it is possible to uninstall with one click. I only asked for a password or an option to hide the so big button. My son does not know what a terminal is to type nothing. Also, there is no way to protect the installed software from accidental uninstall, afterwards Wine has its own application to uninstall programs in other icon in the dash board. Otherwise, thank you both very much for the very friendly and warm welcome to the forum. Have a nice day and good luck in order to continue improve this software.

Edited by formentor

None of the way to uninstall you listed "uninstalls in one click"; At the very least they require a confirmation, you can check.

But if you can access the configuration window you can break a lot of things without even uninstalling anything. Your problem is that the PlayOnLinux interface not only allows to start programs, but is mainly used to install/uninstall/tweak the installation of those programs. Having some kind of "locked down" mode that basically turns it into a launcher is an interesting idea, but quite a departure from the current design.

For the time being, if you don't use above recommended solution to create separate users, maybe you can create desktop shortcuts for the relevant programs (select a program, then click on "Create a shortcut"' in the side panel), and don't use the PlayOnLinux interface at all.

 

Edited by petch

I created a feature request so it doesn't get lost (no promises though):

https://www.playonlinux.com/en/issue-5039.html

Hello again, Petch thank you very much for the awesome idea of a launcher system, it is better idea than the password way. Kids will get benefit from the launcher and the parents also in order to let the kids play safe with no risk to uninstall or to break something. I will follow your instructions to make more shortcuts for the relevant programs, a good idea also. Thank you again for your time to answer me, I send you some virtual mother hugs and from my son also. Have a nice day and some very good things to your life. Carolina. Balearic Islands.

Edited by formentor

Glad to help :)