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Not sure if this is the right forum, or if I should take this to a more general one. Please feel free to redirect me!

Problem: I'm seeing more and more people taking their data with them rather than leaving it on one computer. Office employees want to take their work home with them and students or anyone using a computer in a library or internet cafe usually bring a thumb drive or a pocket-drive with them. This has the same security issues that we saw when people were bringing floppies to work etc. added to the prevalence of hacking, keylogging and malware. The security issues crop up for both the user and the public/office computer. Large systems can only provide a limited amount of space for their clients / students / employees and assume the responsibility for the integrity of that storage.

Solution: an option in the setup of Kubuntu that allows a person's "home" folder to reside on a specifically formatted & arranged external USB device. All their documents, as well as their desktops and application preferences would reside on that device. We would also want to isolate their browsing history/cache/bookmarks and any temporary files as well.
- The intent would be for only one (1) account actually residing on the computer: the admin account which would be securely locked down.
- The option for having a folder containing personal applications (ones the person needed but weren't on the public computer) that integrated into the Kickoff menu would be nice, if this could be done and still maintain the integrity of the idea.

Functionally: A user would walk up to the computer, plug the device in and be asked for a password. Without the device, there would be no user account to access. Without the password, the user account would be inaccessible. For home users, the device could remain plugged in and function transparently across reboots. Public users would literally only be able to see their own files.

Benefits:
- Security for public computers: users can do what they want, install what they want & it won't affect the system integrity. Every new user would function like a separate install. There would be no possibility of phishing info from a previous user's cache.
- Convenience for computer users: not having to worry whether they copied the right files or which copy was up to date or whether they accidentally saved it to the last computer instead of their mobile storage. Nor will they leave personal info on the computer when they walk away.
- Less hassle when re-installing an O/S: all users' important data is already separate from the machine's file structure. Less time pre/post install because users' data doesn't have to be backed up. No more worries about forgetting to save an important but obscure folder.

I think that, even in homes with families this would be a good way to go, so that more savvy but less wise household members wouldn't infect others' accounts with unwanted toolbars, viruses and adware. I think it also reflects the direction that personal computing is going in the near future.

This is beyond KDE software so I'm closing it as Invalid. You can try to suggest it to the Kubuntu team (not sure where since I'm not familiar with the Kubuntu community, but it shouldn't be too hard to find).

You can already get something similar by installing the whole OS on a USB stick, but I guess that's not what you want.