2mo ago

RFC: seperating work and personal data/environments

I use my Debian desktop for both work and personal uses. I have trouble with work-life balance, and I think segregating may help. I'm looking for tips on the best ways to accomplish this.

First thought is to create a user each for work and play, but I guess I'd want to somehow restrict applications to one or the other, and I do use some of the same. (Browser, IDE)

Second thought is to dual boot with an entirely unrelated install.

Is there a better way that I haven't thought of?

12 comments

duuuuuude you need to airgap that shit.
ive got an isolated vlan with its own access point only accessed by my work laptop, which is only ever used for that purpose.
with devices now performing passive network scans, and corporate software becoming ever more intrusive i cant fathom letting a work machine anywhere near my personal shit.
- My company doesn't have any access to my computer and installed nothing on it, but i agree with the sentiment.
  
  are you required to use ms teams or zoom?
- duuuuuude you need to airgap that shit.
  ive got an isolated vlan with its own access point only accessed by my work laptop
  That's not an air gap. "VLAN" already implies you have a direct physical connection between the networks, and "access point" implies you are using wireless LAN on top which is the literal opposite of an air gap.
Keep all work stuff contained in a (encrypted) virtual machine, that's what I do.
I work for a big enterprise, in a case like that, you seriously don't want sensitive company data on your personal PC, it's asking for troubles if you do.
Our company PCs are Windows, I got permission to install VIrtualbox so I can use Linux that's so much better for many things. I encrypted the VM I use for work, so I can keep a copy on my personal PC when I work at home, without any risk of data breaches.
The advantage of a VM is that it makes it very easy to separate work from home, you start it up when you work, you shut it down when you're done working and it doesn't "interfere" with your personal stuff that way.
- A VM could work, that's a good idea.
  I don't, personally, need to worry about my company seeing my personal data as they have never installed or asked me to install anything, and I don't even connect to an office network. I'm mostly trying to keep myself from being too distracted while I'm working, and from starting work projects when I have an idea at midnight.
If you want to have some applications only available to one user you could install them as user flatpaks or AppImages.
Personally I would just create two activities in KDE but you seem to want more separation.
Maybe encrypted home folders so that you can't easily access one from the other. Although permissions should be enough for that.
- I dont know what an activity is but I'll have a look.
Multiple desktop workspaces? Different QubesOS VMs?

12 comments