Hi all :)

I manage a handful of websites and their emails using the PortableApps suite on Windows, so have a separate browser and mail client for each one. This has worked well for years, but now I’m switching to Linux, Mint specifically. I’ve read that I can set up profiles on Firefox and probably Thunderbird, or maybe run separate instances with things like AppImages, but it sounds like it’s a messy solution, and could end up with me using the wrong profile by mistake

What I want to do is set up a virtual machine for each site, and have a completely separate instance of the programs, and hopefully a way to easily transfer the machines to other systems if needs be.

I’d prefer to use a Debian / Ubuntu based distro with Apt and the ‘Windows’ style desktop, as that’s what I’m already used to, but am I better off installing Mint and stripping it down, or is there something more suited to this?

Thanks in advance :)

  • @mojo_raisinEnglish
    2•7 months ago

    Ya, this isn’t an easy problem to solve. I have some of the same issues.

    If you want to try again or keep trying with the shared directory model try the “sticky bit” along with ACL.

    sudo setfacl -d -m g:shared:rwx /path/to/shared_directory

    This will make any files/directories you create in the shared dir have the right permissions to share. But it doesn’t apply to files already existing in the directory or files/directories created outside of this directory that are moved into the directory.

    If you go the VM route, you might look into QEMU + KVM using .qcow2 files for the VM disk. Then you could just copy the qcow around and start the VM with a command (albeit a complex command). If this sounds interestiing, let me know and I can provide help and examples of how I do it or explanations.