We provide Windows desktops running ITS Managed Desktop or Yoyo (you're on your own) Desktop. The technical support for using these is provided by ITS Helpdesk, but contact COM Support in the first instance of any problem in case it's something we can resolve.

Departmental Linux PCs currently run the Ubuntu distribution. We follow the LTS (Long Term Support) versions which are more stable than the interim releases, and get updates for a much longer period of time.

H-drive (personal storage)
The H-drive is available on a Linux PC via SSHFS. To install this, run sudo apt install sshfs, then create your H-drive mount point with mkdir $HOME/H-drive; after that you can mount the H-drive like this sshfs <username>@stafflogin.dcs.shef.ac.uk: ~/H-drive (replace <username> with your own DCS username). More info here: Access to home dir with sshfs

Alternatively the H-drive can be accessed via the SMB client, in the file manager. See this page: remote_access_to_departmental_services

You should store anything important in H-drive, because it is backed up every weekend. Everything else is not backed up. The default storage quota is 10GB. If you require more space please submit a support call ticket to request it.

Installing software
You can install extra software yourself, by using the 'sudo apt install' command in a terminal, or graphically through the Ubuntu Software Centre.

Admin rights
The primary user of the computer will be allowed to elavate their privilege to root by using the 'sudo' command.

Encryption key for hard drive
By default your Linux PC comes with a hard-to-remember code for unlocking the hard drive on boot. To add your own password for convenience, see Managing hard drive encryption on Linux

Macs are provided with the latest MacOS version. On older hardware there is also the option of installing Linux.