Desktop/Whiteboards/Firewall

The problem with a static firewall as Fedora currently ships with iptables/system-config-firewall is that it actively interferes with a lot of things that users want to do with their desktops:

• Automatic discovery of printers and other services
• Music sharing (eg via DAAP)
• File sharing
• Desktop sharing (eg via VNC)

Possible ways to improve the situation are:

• Just turn the firewall off. Rely on not running any unnecessary network-facing services, and lock the necessary services down using SELinux.
• Allow applications to poke holes in the firewall, under user-control
• Handle different situations differently: no firewall when on the trusted 'home network', but strict firewall when using coffee shop wifi