Use Ubuntu for a public computer in a library

How would you set up Ubuntu on a computer that will be used as public computer in a library?

I need the following features:

• On boot, a guest user should automatically be logged in.
• Only Firefox, Chrome and OpenOffice should be available for the guest user.
• The guest user should be able to write files to his/her USB stick, but never to the computer's hard drive.

Any guidelines on how to set up something like this? Is there perhaps a remix of Ubuntu created for this exact purpose?

EDIT:

I visited my local library today. I was surprised when I noticed the public computer I tried was running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS! (previously they had Windows PCs and a few old Macs) I asked a librarian and she said that the branch was the first one to test a new system for the public PCs. I will send an email to the IT people and inquire about the configuration. Will update if I get an answer. The library is the Oslo public library (Deichman), Holmlia branch, BTW.

From ubuntu codeape

• 1. Setting up the Guest account is pretty straight forward: System > Administration > Users and Groups Then follow this: Ubuntu StackExchange: How can user avoid entering password on bootup?
  2. After uninstalling all the software using Applications > Ubuntu Software Center get Google Chrome from here: Google Chrome for Linux and install it.
  3. This is really the tricky part. By default they're only allowed to download to the "Guest" home folder. You could change the home folders permissions or ownership to something else (baring in mind that the settings folder should remain owned by Guest. An alternative would be to have a script which re-created the Guest home folder on each login. For the USB drive reading that shouldn't be a problem as it's allowed by default.
  txwikinger : Or guest could be added to the appropriate group necessary to read/write usb sticks

  Broam : Chromium is also available if you don't want to install Chrome.
  From Marco Ceppi

• You might want to have a look at these two programs: pessulus and sabayon

  Especially sabayon is interesting, though it is a bit confusing! It can recreate a predefined session for a user at every startup, this session can then be totally restricted with pessulus. Then you just need to setup auto-login (Through the menu System>Administration>Login Screen) and you're ready to go.

  codeape : Looks very promising, thanks.

  Source Lab : While these two programs are still really much in development i now actually got a setup that works and can only use Firefox.
  From Source Lab

• This is pretty similar to what I did for some computers in our Student Center. They were WinXP machines with admin access. On a college campus. Shudder! I'm sure they had more virii than... well, you know.

  After spending about 15 minutes trying to clean up the horrible mess, I decided to switch the machines to Ubuntu. At first we just had a "student" user that was automagically logged on, but we had some high school kids come in who had no problems standing at the computers for 3+ hours a day. So I created an .xsession script that made absolutely nothing start up except for my custom pyGTK+ script that gave them... I think it was 15 minutes, and then automatically logged them out. They could launch firefox and browse the web, but that was it. Once they closed firefox, my program would pop back up and lock the screen for 5-10 seconds (it's been a while since I've looked at it). This effectively annoys anyone who wants to stand there and just log back in, but that's about the time it takes for one user to move all their stuff, leave, and the next guy/gal to take their place.

  Marco's idea is pretty solid, though.

  From Wayne Werner

• This is a summary of an email from Oslo public library, describing their setup:

  • The public PCs run lubuntu 10.04
  • They use LXLauncher
  • The public PCs boot off a server image (using PXE, I guess?)
  • They follow the Libki and koha projects closely (I do not know how/if they use them)

  The library IT people will create a detailed description of their setup. I will edit and add links when I know more.

  George Edison : Looking forward to that!
  From codeape

• gdm-guest-session-launcher

  From juancarlospaco