Unity greeter received remote login support in Ubuntu 12.10 (by default)

Days ago, Unity greeter was updated with various visual refinements, minor yet relevant visual bits, aimed at further polishing Ubuntu's default login experience.

The visual refresh has been followed by the handy addition of the Network Indicator, indicator exposed (by default) at login, furthermore, adding specific functionalities, such as enabling/disabling connections, access connection details, etc.

The developers have just landed the remote login support for Unity greeter (by default), allowing the user to hassle-free login to remote machines across the internets.

The actual remote machine-oriented access is performed via a guest session, consequently, removing the need to authenticate (by typing the user "local" password), with benefits in speed.

"One of the problems we realized pretty quickly was that remembering the hostnames for all of the machines when they're "on a cloud" somewhere was going to make this feature much less useful".

In order to resolve the mentioned issue, the developers have implemented an exciting manner of managing one's remote machine accounts, in the sense of delivering support to "link" (store) remote machine accounts to an Ubuntu SSO account (like for instance, the account used for downloading $0 apps from Ubuntu Software Center).

When at login, scrolling the login box, exposes a help button, clicking on it, summons a dialog, where Set Up can be clicked and accessed (clicking on it, opens a guest session).

After Firefox is automatically opened in the guest session, the user can further proceed and add accounts to one's Ubuntu SSO from the displayed webpage (via the top Remote Desktops) .

The highly-usable part is:

• at login, navigate to Remote Login
• type one's Ubuntu SSO account details (email address and password)
  
• by pressing Enter, the login box gains new additions, such as the remote machine account previously added via the above mentioned help button approach (basically, the Ubuntu SSO presents itself as an account gatherer that, when typed at login, automatically exposes one's remote accounts)
  
• filling the required fields, opens the remote machine in fullscreen mode via a guest session